The other Dave Chappelle on Episode 265

Dirthead_Dave from the Dirthead Shed joins us for Episode 265. Let’s talk about building cars from hot rods to offroad, Join us and support the other Dave Chappelle. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

4:46 – The off-roading is the one thing that’s stuck and put me on the map the most

9:37 – Saturn was its own little weird community, compares to the girls with their IG handle on the side of the hood              

15:32 – I ended up sabotaging the Sentra so it wouldn’t pass smog because my dad didn’t want me to get a mini truck, he knew I’d be broke forever after that 

24:00 – Got my first Jeep in 2005 and that was the kickoff for all the stuff I’m doing now 

30:05 – I told them I’d prep the Bronco and haul it to the start of UA if I got to go, that’s how I weaseled my way in there

48:20 –right now, it’s just wide-open throttle, pushing YouTube and trying to grow my brand 

Special thanks to Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

[00:00:05.300] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.470] - 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.890] - Big Rich Klein

This week's guest is a YouTuber and car builder. From low riders to off road, known as Dirthead Dave, can be found at the Dirt Shed on Instagram, Dave Chapelle.

[00:01:26.640] - Big Rich Klein

Dave, how's it going?

[00:01:28.840] - Dave Chapelle

Pretty good. It's Instagram is Dirthead_dave.

[00:01:34.180] - Big Rich Klein

Dirthead_dave. Okay.

[00:01:37.500] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. And then the YouTube is the Dirthead Shed.

[00:01:41.120] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, okay. Got that wrong, everybody. Make sure you make a I'm proud of that. Got to meet you personally, one-on-one. Well, not one-on-one. You had your buddies there, Fred, Trent, and Vern, all sitting in grandpa's garage on Wednesday night. And I've been wanting to get you on the podcast, and just hadn't reached out to Fred to get your contact number. So I'm glad we got to meet personally.

[00:02:12.030] - Dave Chapelle

Yep, it's all about hanging out at grandpa's garage when you're in Moab. You always meet the nicest people there.

[00:02:19.070] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. So let's get started. And the first question, which to me is the easiest one to ask, but sometimes the hardest one to answer, and that's, where were you born and raised?

[00:02:34.310] - Dave Chapelle

I was born in Portland, Oregon. I was a little kid up in that area in Troutdale, east of Portland. Then mid '80s, we moved down to Roseburg, Oregon. It was always my parents. My parents always wanted to just keep going south. Lived in Roseburg, Oregon when I was in elementary school and in the junior Then in, I think, 1990 or late '90, early '91, we moved down to San Diego. That was where I feel like I grew up. I was a little kid in Oregon, and then I grew up in San Diego.

[00:03:15.390] - Big Rich Klein

What precipitated the move? Was parents chasing work?

[00:03:21.460] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, basically, we went from... My dad was always in the car business in sales and management. We He was selling cars in Gresham and Portland area for forever. Then we moved down to Roseburg and were able to partner in on a dealership. It was actually Neuelschapel Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac, Jeep, and Eagle. We went down there, and they did the car dealership for five or six years. Then after that, my dad had the opportunity to move down to San Diego and kick off the whole Saturn thing in the early '90s. We moved down to San Diego, and he was the He was like the sales manager in charge of sales and training for all of the San Diego Saturn stores.

[00:04:24.530] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, great.

[00:04:25.540] - Dave Chapelle

We just kept heading south, and it was all about the connections he made throughout his career and opportunities that that brought, which was the way to go.

[00:04:37.060] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Absolutely. Those early years, you said grade school and then junior high and high school happened in San Diego?

[00:04:46.660] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, junior high and high school was all San Diego, East County. So that was where I got. I was into BMX and I was into bikes like crazy and BMX and all that when I was in Oregon. Then we moved down to San Diego, and I got into riding a little bit more like freestyle on the street. Then that was a great place and time to be for all of that. Then low riders and mini-trucks and customs, and then finally off-roading. The off-roading is the one thing that's stuck and put me on the map the most.

[00:05:27.420] - Big Rich Klein

In school, Were you a good student or were you one of those that always was looking out the window just waiting to get outside?

[00:05:39.330] - Dave Chapelle

Man, I was a good student, but I wasn't good at getting good grades. I worked really, really hard in school, studied a lot, did a ton of homework, and I still barely got a B average by the time I graduated. I like school. It It was just it didn't come easy for me. My wife could memorize stuff and she could ace a test, whereas I had to work pretty hard in order to do decent on tests. You know what I mean?

[00:06:14.260] - Big Rich Klein

Right. No, I understand. And so did you get any college in or did you just go right into the workforce?

[00:06:25.530] - Dave Chapelle

Well, yeah, a little of both. I actually started working when I was 13. Summer after seventh grade, I started washing cars at Saturn just for a little extra money. I ended up working for Saturn from the time I was 13 till I was like, '21 or 22. I did that. I also did some college. Basically, I screwed up college. When I graduated high school, I was like, I worked really hard for this. Then I graduated right next to a bunch of guys that didn't do anything for four years, and I just had a bad taste in my mouth for school after that. I ended up going to college, but I didn't take it very seriously. I took some general Ed classes and some auto tech classes. After three years at a junior college of screwing around, I said that was enough of that.

[00:07:27.530] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Did Did you get auto classes in high school? Did they have that?

[00:07:33.280] - Dave Chapelle

I didn't do auto classes in high school. We had a really good auto tech program at the high school I went to, but I ended up taking electronics as my electives there. It wasn't until a year and a half after I graduated that I went back to the high school and I took these ROP auto body classes. Okay. Basically, night school auto body stuff. It was partly because I was friends with the teacher, and they had a bunch of cool tools that I didn't have at home. So I was able to run up to the school and use the plasma cutter up there instead of cutting things out with an angle grinder at my parents house. Right.

[00:08:17.990] - Big Rich Klein

And how long did your dad stay at Saturn?

[00:08:25.850] - Dave Chapelle

He actually ran it all the way up until the end. He was able to retire from there. I think Saturn was actually done in about 2009, and I think he worked there till 2007. Something along those lines.

[00:08:42.440] - Big Rich Klein

Was Saturn part of GM or one of the others, or was it a complete standalone?

[00:08:50.230] - Dave Chapelle

It was part of GM. Originally, it was supposed to stand out from Buick and Pontiac and and all of that. But towards the end of the run, they started messing up all the vehicles and stuff to where it was just another rebranded GM category. But in the beginning, it really was its own beast, which was pretty cool.

[00:09:23.240] - Big Rich Klein

So on pirate, in the old days, they used to talk about crazy female to be worried about ones that drove green Saturns. Did you find any truth to that?

[00:09:37.750] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, man. I mean, it was... Saturn was its own little weird community. So there were definitely There were some eccentric people that ended up buying Saturns. I mean, today you would look at a new Jeep with all the ducks on the windshield and all the color match stuff. And it was the girls that are putting their Instagram handle on the side of the hood. And it was really the same thing back then. The Saturn crew was eccentric like that as well.

[00:10:12.850] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, fair enough. So you worked there till '21, '22, you said, with Saturn. What did you do? What did you do after that?

[00:10:26.970] - Dave Chapelle

Right around that time, I was also I was doing car customizing and stuff as well. I've always had multiple jobs. When I was in college and past that, basically, I was going to school in the morning. Then I would go work in the afternoon in the quick lube, like oil change stuff at Saturn. Then after that, I would drive up to North County, and I was working at a place called the Chop Shop in Escondido, and we were on the cutting edge of doing airbags and floor links and custom suspension on mini-trucks. I ran that job for a while. Then I quit sat down and I went to work at a place called Hot Rod City, doing the suspension and fabrication for this big Hot Rod shop, an all-inclusive place. Then right around that time, I ended up just opening up my own shop called The Lowering Block. That was all, chassis work and suspension and many trucks and customs and chopping tops and all that stuff.

[00:11:40.610] - Big Rich Klein

Where did you learn suspension work?

[00:11:44.460] - Dave Chapelle

Trial and error? Well, I was working for that shop in Escondido called the Chop Shop. It was basically trial and error, but I was lucky enough to be doing it for a job.

[00:11:59.590] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Somebody paying you to experiment.

[00:12:03.830] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. I've been messing around with all that stuff for years. You name a four-link design that may or may not have worked, and I've probably done it. I think those years of experimenting with it has helped out now because it makes you know a little bit more how it's going to perform before you tear into it. Right.

[00:12:32.070] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about your history of vehicles. What was the first car you got to drive?

[00:12:40.640] - Dave Chapelle

Shit. The first car I ever drove was my brother's Pontiac Fiero.

[00:12:45.200] - Big Rich Klein

Which was an accurately named vehicle.

[00:12:51.220] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. It was a... He had a Fiero in high school, and so that was the first car I ever drove was a little 1986 four-cylinder manual transmission Fiero. That was when I was probably 14 or so. Then the first car I ever had for my own, well, the first car I got a chance to drive, really, was this Volvo 740 wagon that I had in high school. It was my mom's car, and they took it away from me after I put two 10s in a bandpass box in in the back of it and started cutting the springs to lower it. They took that away, and then I ended up getting this little salvage title, Nissan Centra, and that was my first car. It was like a little $500 junker Nissan Centra that I ended up lowering and putting wheels and tires on and big stereo and did a pretty decent interior in It was a fun high school car.

[00:14:03.990] - Big Rich Klein

I have to ask about the Volvo. Was your mom still driving it while you were making the custom Mods?

[00:14:12.980] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. She had a Saturn as well. It was like my dad and my mom were both driving newer Saturns, and the Volvo was the extra car. She She came home one day and I had the rear coils out of it, and I was about to cut them, and they were like, I don't think so. That was when I ended up having to get my own car.

[00:14:44.140] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. It would have been great if she had come home after you cut them.

[00:14:50.860] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. Tell me about it.

[00:14:55.280] - Big Rich Klein

So a Volvo wagon, that would have allowed a lot room for sound system in the back.

[00:15:02.390] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, it was a cool car. Looking back, it'd be nice to have it still. But at the time, it needed motor amounts and turbo work, and it needed all this other stuff. So they were like, Let's just get rid of this thing. But you know how it goes. They're all good when you look back at them.

[00:15:25.160] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. Anything you get a chance to drive. So then how long did you have the Centra?

[00:15:32.650] - Dave Chapelle

I had that till... I actually had the Sentra through high school and into my first year of college. And I really wanted something I could modify an airbag and do all this custom stuff, too. So I ended up sabotaging the Sentra and made sure it wouldn't pass smog because my dad didn't want me to sell it and get a mini truck because he knew I'd be broke forever after that. So I sabotaged it and made sure it didn't pass smog. And then I sold it and bought a '93 Toyota pickup standard cab, short bed, two-wheel drive. I bought that through... It was a trade in at Saturn. And looking back, it was pretty new. I bought it in '97, and it was a '93. So it's weird. Back then, it seemed like an old truck, but nowadays, the thing was pretty new.

[00:16:30.650] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, only four years from the showroom floor. Yeah.

[00:16:35.740] - Dave Chapelle

That was my first thing that I really customized, and I took that thing. I was working for the chop shop, the part-time gig and apprenticeship, basically, at the Shop Shop, was with that truck. We did a ton of work to it. Airbagged it and body dropped it, forelinked it, and just did a massive amount of work to it. I basically worked at the Shop Shop for nine months in my spare time to pay off the bill for all the work we did to it there.

[00:17:10.730] - Big Rich Klein

Did you ever put Hydraulic Bed on it?

[00:17:14.160] - Dave Chapelle

No, that was the generation before me. By the time I was in the mini truck and the tilt bed thing and the wheels and tires that poked out were like, that was long gone. It was all about just ultra-low and clean and tucking as much wheel as you could.

[00:17:34.210] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. And a big sound system?

[00:17:39.360] - Dave Chapelle

Not in that one. That one, I really never got a chance to do a stereo on it because I was working on the thing so much. Then I ended up selling it. Once I sold that, that was opening the floodgates to me, having lots of projects for a long time.

[00:18:00.920] - Big Rich Klein

What did your dad think of the mini truck?

[00:18:05.900] - Dave Chapelle

He thought it was cool. I think they were bummed that I cut the thing up so much right out of the gate. But anytime somebody had come by the house, they were definitely out there showing it off to them and proud of me for it. Nice. It was good. Yeah, that's good. It was the first time that I ever had a car payment and started establishing credit and all that. So it was good timing for all that.

[00:18:35.950] - Big Rich Klein

Being a grown up. Yes. Adulting.

[00:18:38.890] - Dave Chapelle

Jumping right in, you know. Yeah.

[00:18:41.880] - Big Rich Klein

And you mentioned the wife. What time frame did you get married?

[00:18:47.500] - Dave Chapelle

I got married in '07. So I was basically 30 when I got married. So I was able to I was able to travel and be young and go to car shows and see bands playing, all that stuff all through my 20s, and then settled down after that. Okay.

[00:19:13.930] - Big Rich Klein

What came along? You said the mini truck after that got you into multiple projects, but what came next?

[00:19:23.770] - Dave Chapelle

After the mini truck phase, probably about '99, I started getting into customs, like '50s cars, specifically. In '98, '99, I started building. I had a 54 Ford mainline, which was a two-door postcar. I chopped the top in my parents' driveway and airbagged it and grafted in a GM front clip under it, built the motor. It was a pretty wild custom that's actually still It's still making its rounds today. It's in Australia now, and it comes and goes. Every once in a while, you'll see pictures of it pop up on the internet, and it's still a rock star.

[00:20:11.530] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:20:12.430] - Dave Chapelle

I did the custom cars stuff for quite a few years. That was my first big custom. Basically, since then, I've always had something like an old custom that's in my fleet that I'm always driving.

[00:20:28.430] - Big Rich Klein

What would you say What has been the most popular build that you've done?

[00:20:35.490] - Dave Chapelle

A lot of them, for personal vehicles, that 54 Ford is the rock star. I sold it in primer. Everything I do, I sell in primer, and then the next owner puts nice paint on it, and they become an internet sensation. That car, if you Google right now, if you're on If you're on your computer and you Google, chopped 54 Ford, it still pops up a picture of my car in primer from from Pasarobles car show in '99. Then if you look up Matt Egan, M-A-T-E-G-A-N, 54 Ford, that's what the car looks like now. It's It's pretty wild. That one definitely has stood the test of time. I also did a '65 Ford pickup that was airbagged and had a GM, a Camaro front clip under it in Fort Lincoln stuff. That one, I ended up selling it. My buddy ended up getting it on the cover of a Classic Trucks magazine and stuff. Then in 2005 or 2006, Travis Barker ended up taking that truck and doing the gumball rally with it, or I think it was the gumball rally or gumball 3000 or something like that. A few of those vehicles have hit it big after I got rid of them still.

[00:22:17.870] - Big Rich Klein

Doing the customizations, that was your main gig at that point? Yeah. You were doing work for other people with your own shop?

[00:22:29.660] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, I did my own shop as the lowering block for a while. Then right around that time was when Monster Garage was really big and all those TV shows were coming out. Basically, I ended up losing my shop insurance right at that time because it put all of the stuff we were doing on the map of the insurance agents. They came around and they canceled my insurance because I was chopping frames and doing all this wild suspension work. I ended up bailing my shop for a year. I went to work for another one of those all-inclusive shops where we did stereo, paint and body, window tent, and then I was in charge of the suspension shop. That was the time frame that I got my first TV show gigs. We were doing episodes of Chop Cut Rebuild at that shop. Then we also did a video series called Street Tuner Challenge. That was my first TV stuff. Then quit that shop, and then I went back and I reopened my own shop as Chapelle's Exhaust and Custom. I was able to call it a muffler shop, basically, but I was still doing a bunch of custom suspension work and all that.

[00:23:59.200] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:24:00.980] - Dave Chapelle

Nice. At that transition, that's when I got my first Jeep and got into four wheeling and stuff like that right around. Got my first Jeep in 2005, and that was the kickoff for all the stuff I'm doing now.

[00:24:18.510] - Big Rich Klein

How did that evolve into that first Jeep? Was it just you saw something you liked or was there a mindset behind it?

[00:24:29.670] - Dave Chapelle

Basically, Basically, I had done all that crazy low rider work, and I was getting tired of putting in that much effort and not seeing it do anything but sitting in a parking lot. I had started going out to Ocateo Wells, camping with my buddy Jeff, and he had a CJ7. It was the first time I was going out to the desert and running the mud notches and stuff out there in Oceteo and watching my buddy CJ7 work. I was like, I could get into this. I like the technical side of it. I ended up buying a 88 Comanchi. I bought the worst Comanchi you could get. It was a 4 liter, but it was Renix Ignition, had the Peugeotranny and all that. I bought a Rubicon Express lift kit for it, which was a spring over in the rear. I took it out, I think, New New Year's weekend in 2005, and immediately blew the rear end up and twisted the leaf springs into an S and broke a front axial, did all this damage to it right out of the gate. I brought it back into the shop, and I ended up doing a four link in the rear with a four nine-inch and a cantilever airbag system.

[00:25:53.060] - Dave Chapelle

That was like, finally got a chance to build something wild and get to watch it rock, crawl, and put my airbag history into it a little bit.

[00:26:07.720] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Is that the one that Colt has now?

[00:26:12.160] - Dave Chapelle

No, that one's Burns.

[00:26:13.670] - Big Rich Klein

That one was Burns. Okay.

[00:26:15.580] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. The one that I ran mine for quite a while. I sold it to a guy out in Phoenix. And last I saw, it was painted like a dark gray, like that cement gray with and it was on Superduty axles, but that was a few years back. Okay.

[00:26:36.290] - Big Rich Klein

So after the Comanchi, what happened? What was the next off-roader?

[00:26:44.070] - Dave Chapelle

I think, oh, when I sold the Comanchi here because I got married and then the Comanchi was fine, then we got a dog and the Comanchi was too small. So I started I started building my Asuzu Amigo. It was a '99 Asuzu Amigo that I solid-axle-swapped and put a wagon here, Dana 44 under the front and four-linked it in the rear. It was a coil over in the front and it's still around. It has this cantilever airbag system in the rear as well, where it's got these bags on this Aarm system, basically, underneath the rear passenger seat. It's a cool rig. Like I said, it's still out there kicking. This guy, Tim, in San Diego has it. But yeah, that was my next build. While I was building that, I bought another $200 Cherokee that I built, low buck and caged it and stuff like that, took it to TDS before my Amigo was done. And then I've been rolling through them since then, really.

[00:28:01.340] - Big Rich Klein

And did you ever work or do anything for the magazines, or have you always done television and more of the YouTube video type stuff?

[00:28:13.730] - Dave Chapelle

I used to do a bunch of tech articles for the magazines. Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. I was doing tech articles for street trucks back in the day and mini truck and magazine and a little bit of exhaust work in that 5. 0 magazine. Then, yeah, the first getting into the off-road magazines, I did the exhaust on the… Rick Payway has that CJ17. It's the aluminum body CJ7 that he took on UA in 2010. Doing the exhaust on that rig was probably my first tech article for the off-road side of things.

[00:28:58.430] - Big Rich Klein

How did you hook up with Payway? Did he just show up at your shop, or did you guys meet somewhere?

[00:29:06.110] - Dave Chapelle

Well, here... No, I think that one was the second one. The first thing I did was roll cage in Fred's flat fender named Grampy.

[00:29:16.320] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah, I remember that.

[00:29:18.120] - Dave Chapelle

I did a roll cage in that, and we did a tech article. I basically got my foot in the door with Fred through Tom Boyd, who is one of characters that's always on ultimate adventure. Oh, yeah. He was living in a motorhome on some property that some friends of mine were doing dirt work on. They were like, This guy, Tommy's crazy and he needs help with this electric scooter. Basically, they hooked me up with Tommy. I helped him build some frames, some prototype chassis for this electric scooter he was trying to come out with.

[00:30:01.710] - Big Rich Klein

I remember that. He was riding one at SEMA one year.

[00:30:05.500] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. If it was a steel frame, I probably built that one. Tommy came into the picture, and he's the one that introduced me to Fred, did the roll cage on Fred's Jeep, and then shortly after that did the exhaust on Payway's Jeep for U. A. Then Tommy has that Bronco that wasn't ready to go for U. A. In 2010, so I told him I'd prep the Bronco and haul it to the start if I got to go on UA. That's That's how I weaseled my way in there.

[00:30:47.380] - Big Rich Klein

Good deal. Then you became one of the the regulars on U.

[00:30:53.250] - Dave Chapelle

A. Yeah. A couple of years later, we broke Tommy's Bronca really bad at Rouse Creek that the year in 2010, and he didn't fix it. So the next year, he was trying to go on UA, and I was like, Well, I'll throw this Dana 60 under the front of the Amigo, and we'll take it. So the next year, I built the Amigo up, and we took it, and it was green back then, but it was fun. Got a chance to go wheel in, I think, Kansas and Oklahoma, and and a bunch of the Midwest on that trip. Then the next year, Tommy's Bronco still wasn't finished, so I built that little yellow Toyota Hilux in 2012, and that's the one that Nate from Moab Ice has now.

[00:31:48.340] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. And on that Kansas trip, did you meet Jake Good then?

[00:31:54.050] - Dave Chapelle

Yes. Jake was one of our trail guides. He was our trail guide at Kansas Rocks, and I talk to Jake all the time now. So that's been all of this stuff. You meet these people and they all become friends. And Jake is one of the good ones. Yeah.

[00:32:12.740] - Big Rich Klein

It took me seven years. He was a competitor at We Rock when we were doing all stock nationals and everything. And then he competed in ProMod and then Unlimited, and he did announcing for us. I worked on him for seven years until until he agreed to take over the We Rock or become a partner, and eventually he'll take it over. But we're sitting in Cedar City right now. He's out with his kids, setting up courses and getting things ready. I'm here on the interview, dealing with you.

[00:32:45.700] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, he actually hollered at me. He hollered at me on my way down to Moab. I'm talking to him about heading out to his place and helping him throw together a tracker with him.

[00:33:00.190] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah, they mentioned that last night. Well, cool. And then you're on UA, you're now in the group, you're starting the video series at that point?

[00:33:15.600] - Dave Chapelle

It took a while. I guess it was probably around then. The first of the Dirt Every Days that I was on was the, I think, episode 30. Fred had been doing... Fred had been doing Dirt Every Day for a little while. At first, he was just doing it on his own, and every once in a while, there would be a co-host on it. The first one I did was episode 30 or 31, and we did the Baja Bugs. That was when we started the car club, the Dirt Heads. Fred and I had been… We were pretty tight at point. We were talking and texting every day, pretty much. So it was pretty cool to get a chance to go and do that. And then I think it was... It wasn't until the Mad Maxis, the off-road runner, they actually had me do the build through my shop. And I got to collect a paycheck on the build side of the Mad Maxis off-road runner. But I wasn't actually a co-host, but I was on camera for the whole three episodes, which was pretty cool because that one was a three episode series. So after that, then I was able to come on more permanently because I guess I would screw that one up too bad.

[00:34:57.720] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I find that most these shows that having a pair of two people working together, it plays a lot better.

[00:35:10.460] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, yeah. It's way better. I wish I had a co-host for my YouTube series because it can get pretty dry when you're just in the garage working by yourself, trying to make it interesting.

[00:35:24.160] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And with a co-host, that humor just comes out. But when you're by yourself, it's hard to be humorous to a camera.

[00:35:36.420] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, yeah, it is. If you can do it, then it's great. It's fun to watch, but it's always better with two people.

[00:35:46.500] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I agree. Where do things stand now in the whole evolution of Dave Chapelle?

[00:35:55.520] - Dave Chapelle

Well, we ended up running the the Dirt Every Day thing all the way to the end, which was cool. I think I was on it for seven years, full-time. Fred was on it for 11 years. Was it 11 years or nine? I don't know. It was a long time. So once, as soon as the Dirt Every Day thing ended, I was able to renegotiate my contract and I could finally start a YouTube channel. There was a stipulation in there where I couldn't do a YouTube channel while I was doing Dirt Every Day. So basically, the two weeks before Dirt Every Day was publicly canceled, I had launched my YouTube channel, and it was good to have a landing spot for fans of the show to continue to follow along. And those early videos were just absolutely garbage. They were like I was trying to film them on my iPhone. A lot of them were actually just things that I had videoed but didn't have any intention of making a YouTube video out of it. So the first video were pretty bad. And I'm three years into it now, and I'm finally finding my groove and figuring out my style, and it's getting better and better.

[00:37:24.160] - Dave Chapelle

So I feel like right now the YouTube thing is where it's at. I would love to have it grow enough to where it's making all my money. But at this point, I'm still working a day job and hustling other little side gigs when I can get them for like, Motor Trend and I'm doing the YouTube thing. So just like when I was 18, I'm working three jobs still, and I'm 46.

[00:37:54.470] - Big Rich Klein

It's amazing how life does that, right?

[00:37:58.060] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, exactly.

[00:37:59.590] - Big Rich Klein

Especially When you're a creative. Anybody can go work 9: 00 to 5: 00.

[00:38:07.090] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. I wouldn't know what to do if I wasn't hustling always and chasing some ridiculous deadline. I'm sure it drives my wife nuts, but I thrive on it.

[00:38:17.930] - Big Rich Klein

What does your wife do, and what's her name?

[00:38:20.750] - Dave Chapelle

Her name's Brenda. She's working for the school district. She works in the special needs classes just as an aide. She took that job part-time, basically, right when... She took the job part-time a few years ago, and then when Dirt Every Day got canceled, she took full full-time position there just because we weren't sure where money was going to be coming from. She took that full-time. Now we're to the point where we're getting our health insurance through her work and stuff like that. I'm getting closer to being able to just do the YouTube thing full-time, but I haven't made the jump yet. Okay.

[00:39:05.600] - Big Rich Klein

And you guys are living up in the Pacific Northwest?

[00:39:09.000] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. We're up there in the northeast corner and moved up here We moved up here seven years ago. So I think it was the end of 2018 we moved up here.

[00:39:23.740] - Big Rich Klein

And besides UA and going out to Easter Jeeps, are there any other events or anything that you like are must-dos for you?

[00:39:36.430] - Dave Chapelle

I wasn't able to do a lot of the must-do stuff while we were filming the Dirt Every Day stuff because we were always on a schedule that was not conducive to travel into things like that. Now that I'm more on my own schedule, I'd love to get out to a We Rock event. I want to go witness some more of that competition, rock crawling. The boom of all that was before I really got into four wheeling, so I didn't get a chance to experience a lot of that. I would like to get to do that. Doing UA makes all other wheeling hard to do just because you get a chance to go to these places that are 2,000 or 3,000 miles away and wheel trails that you wouldn't normally get to. It's expensive, and I always try to show up with something new for the trip. That event in its own just takes over a bunch of my year. Once I'm back from that, then I'm just excited to explore my area here in the Pacific Northwest and get on simple trails and backroads and dirt roads and explore somewhere of this area because it's still new to me.

[00:41:12.030] - Big Rich Klein

Well, if you get a chance at the end of July We're doing the Moon Rocks outside of Reno, Sparks area.

[00:41:19.550] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, cool.

[00:41:20.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. It's going to be a Friday night, Saturday night event. Cool. And that will be... I mean, there's a resurgence in rock crawling. We're getting back up there into the '50s and '60s at every event. Solid numbers, lots of spectators. There's a good vibe going on with it again. Jake's been doing a really good job with We Rock, which has helped. That'll be a good event site, and probably a really fun one to get to if you can.

[00:41:53.720] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. Sparks is like, I can be there in a day, which that one's good because it's drivable without having to commit to a long road trip and lots of hotel rooms.

[00:42:10.050] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, exactly.

[00:42:11.960] - Dave Chapelle

And that's a perfect one. I really want to do a long distance desert trip through that part of the country. So it might be fun to go down there and check it out and then meander through the desert on my way home. There you go.

[00:42:26.390] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. So doing the UA events and and getting to wheel a bunch of different spots, I always like to ask people to do that. What's your favorite, say, three spots that you've been to?

[00:42:41.720] - Dave Chapelle

I mean, I moved up to this area after wheeling in Wallace, Idaho in 2012. That was always on my radar. So I've got to say, getting to wheel the compressor trail outside of Wallace, Idaho was awesome on UA, and it It brought this area into my radar. So that's one. It's an awesome trail, and the area is really neat. The only downside is there isn't a whole lot of other rock crawling around here. Wind Rock is also... Actually, any of the Southeast big parks like Wind Rock or AOP, they are really awesome, and they're super accessible. But probably some of the best wheeling I've ever done is actually in the northeast at that, what is the name of it? Field and Forest place up there in New Hampshire. That place blew my mind. I was on my first UA when we got a chance to go there. So maybe nowadays, if I went back there, it It didn't blow my mind. But going on UA and driving to the opposite corner of the country and wheeling that northeast, it was awesome. I love that area. It's a little difficult because a lot of it is private land, and it's more who you know than what you know.

[00:44:18.680] - Dave Chapelle

But yeah, there's some of that northeast wheeling is probably some of my favorite.

[00:44:25.300] - Big Rich Klein

Have you had a chance to do the Rubicon?

[00:44:28.520] - Dave Chapelle

Yes, I actually have We're on the Rubicon. We ran it on UA in 2016, so I took my Hilux on the Rubicon in Fort Ice that year. Then Fred and I also shot an episode of Dirt Every Day where I drove a stock, square-body Chevy truck across the Rubicon. And that was probably my favorite episode that we ever made.

[00:44:56.280] - Big Rich Klein

So you took a stock, square-body So what size tires were you running? Like 30s?

[00:45:05.200] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, 235, 75, 16s. They were like ling-long highway tires.

[00:45:15.930] - Big Rich Klein

Was it a short bed, I hope, at least?

[00:45:18.230] - Dave Chapelle

No, it was a long bed. Long bed.

[00:45:20.850] - Big Rich Klein

And what all did you break? What all did you guys break or damage?

[00:45:25.840] - Dave Chapelle

I mean, I banged up everything on it. The rockers and the doors all got caved in a little bit. The bedside got caved in a little bit. But truthfully, other than body damage, I didn't really break anything on it. I bent the steering stabilizer off of it, got the carburator on fire like 30 times. It was a great trip. But yeah, that truck lives on. We ended up later on putting that thing on '40s. And putting a doubler in it, building up the Dana 44 in it. I actually drove that truck back door in an episode of Dirt Every Day as well.

[00:46:12.000] - Big Rich Klein

Very nice.

[00:46:13.520] - Dave Chapelle

Now, Freiburger owns it. It's still called Dave's Red Truck, but he painted it green.

[00:46:22.180] - Big Rich Klein

Dave's Red Truck, but it's green. I like that. So what is it like This is probably a dumb question, but what is it like having the same name as a famous black comedian?

[00:46:36.090] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, my God. When I was 12 years old and Robin hood, Men in Tights, came out, it was like my world just changed. So, yes, everywhere I go, every time I buy something, every cashier is always like, That's just the comedian. Do you ever get that? And I'm like, Yes, every day.

[00:46:59.480] - Big Rich Klein

Every Every day. And there's a few of us that can say that we know both the white Kevin Hart and the white Dave Chappelle.

[00:47:10.840] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah. I would love to. I would love to meet the real Dave Chappelle. He's got to be a hoot.

[00:47:19.630] - Big Rich Klein

That's my understanding. I mean, and the guy is just brilliant. Yeah, exactly. His insight into society, you might say. But that's what the great comedians are. They have that insight to be able to just pick apart society.

[00:47:40.130] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, yeah. No, his comedy is unreal. A lot of times when I'm driving across country, that's what I'm watching or listening to is old Dave Chappelle, like comedy skits. That's awesome. I can't duplicate any of it, though. I can sit there and laugh, but I can't tell the jokes like he can.

[00:48:02.150] - Big Rich Klein

No, I completely understand. I completely understand. What do you feel is the future for you guys? For you, say, family Family-wise and the show and everything?

[00:48:20.630] - Dave Chapelle

I mean, truthfully, if I can hustle this YouTube thing and get seven or eight years out of it, That is going to be amazing. I don't really know what's beyond that, but at that point, I'm going to be getting old enough to where I'm probably ready to slow down a little bit anyways. Right now, it's just wide open throttle, pushing YouTube and trying to grow my brand and sell some shirts and all that stuff. That's the best place to be at this time. I wish that I could have started it sooner, but I wouldn't give up those years of being able to do dirt every day at all. I'm just going to keep pushing it, try and grow my own brand. I got a really good gig at Easter Jeep Safari, shooting videos for Jeep, but they were produced through Motor Trend. If I can pick up gig work like that and stay in front of multiple audiences and keep growing these relationships with brands and bigger companies, then I feel like that's a good spot to be, and it's plenty of work. So just got to keep my nose clean, make sure they keep calling me back.

[00:49:46.540] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Absolutely. And so the whole UA thing with Trent, what's that looking like?

[00:49:59.250] - Dave Chapelle

It's It seems good. We broke free from... It was his ultimate adventure for 24 years. And then we broke free from Motor Trend because we weren't sure if they were going to keep trying to sell the event and promote it and all that. So Trent and Christian and all of the cronies, we decided if Trent and Christian wanted to create a new event, the cronies would follow and help keep it going and promoting it and all that. Last year was the first year of the UA as the Unreal Adventure, and it was great. The videos turned out awesome. They're longer, the vibe was back. It was nice to not be under the corporate thumb. It was a great trip. I'm hoping that if we can continue to get the sponsors like Skyjacker and IH Parts America and Off-Road Design, if we can keep getting the sponsors like that so that Trent and Christian are able to push forward and do more of these UAS, then it should carry on. I think it would be cool to get more of what we call readers on board. They're not really readers anymore because there's no more magazine, but we don't know what else to call them, readers or invitees.

[00:51:33.310] - Dave Chapelle

I think it'd be cool to get more of them on board and to get more of the young wheelers on board just because it's a cool opportunity to get to wheel in spots of the country where you might not be familiar with.

[00:51:49.040] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Absolutely. I guess you did the UAS down in Texas?

[00:51:58.970] - Dave Chapelle

Yeah, I was I didn't do the '07, the first one that they were at Ketempsey Rocks, but I did the one two or three years ago where we did, I think we were at- Wolf Caves? K2 No. No. Okay. Tempsey, too. And then we started out at that Rock & Ranch or whatever in Oklahoma, I think. And yeah, that whole area is awesome. Some of the wheeling at that place in Oklahoma That's really cool. We even did a really neat trail system that was like a public OHV area outside of Fort Worth. That was really cool.

[00:52:39.750] - Big Rich Klein

I don't know that one. I want to say, Dave, thank you so much for coming on and being a guest on Conversations with Big Rich. I really appreciate it. It's good to get to know you, finally, and hopefully come across to you much more. I really It's great when I get a chance to sit and talk to guys like Vern and Trent and Fred and some of the others when we meet someplace like at Moab. Oh, yeah. That just doesn't seem to happen enough anymore, anywhere.

[00:53:19.710] - Dave Chapelle

It is a challenge, but everybody's just running around. Everybody's running around with their hair on fire, trying to Keep the sport alive, promote the sport and all that. It's not that common that we get a chance to chill out. Definitely good meeting up with you out there at Danny Grimes' place or grandpa's garage. Keep me in the loop as far as when the We Rock competitions are around. I would definitely like to get out and check it out. I can't really afford to build a comp rig at the moment.

[00:53:56.270] - Big Rich Klein

Understood. But maybe we can find you a rental Oh, that would be awesome.

[00:54:02.200] - Dave Chapelle

I've actually never driven a buggy like that, so it'd be pretty cool.

[00:54:06.010] - Big Rich Klein

We'll see what we'll do. I'll talk to guys this weekend and make sure that Jake knows that we got to find you a rental. We'll get maybe- Sounds good. Maybe get Fred to spot for you or something.

[00:54:18.760] - Dave Chapelle

Oh, that'd be awesome.

[00:54:19.330] - Big Rich Klein

I've seen him drive. I've seen him drive, so it would be better him as a spotter, I think.

[00:54:24.960] - Dave Chapelle

He's a better driver than me. Every time I screw up, he jumps in and saves the Okay.

[00:54:31.060] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Well, then it'll at least be entertaining.

[00:54:34.230] - Dave Chapelle

Exactly.

[00:54:36.220] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Okay, well, you have a great rest of your day. And again, thank you. And it was great meeting with you.

[00:54:43.910] - Dave Chapelle

You too, man. Take care. I'll talk to you guys soon.

[00:54:46.020] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Take care. Bye-bye.

[00:54:48.120] - Dave Chapelle

Bye.

[00:54:49.500] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.