Saxophone slinging Justin Andrews from Warn (and Factor 55) on Episode 279

Join us for an exciting episode of "Conversations with Big Rich" as we dive into the fascinating world of off-road with our guest, Justin Andrews. Known for his dynamic journey in the off-road industry, Justin shares his unique story, from his musical roots to becoming a key player at Factor 55 and Warn Industries.

Episode Highlights:

• Justin's Musical Beginnings: Discover how Justin transitioned from playing saxophone in a Scottish punk band to becoming an off-road enthusiast and industry leader.
• Off-Road Passion: Learn about Justin's first experiences with off-roading, his adventures in Moab, and how a chance encounter with King of the Hammers changed his life.
• Industry Impact: Hear about Justin's role at Factor 55, his journey through the company's acquisition by Warn Industries, and his current position as brand manager for both Factor 55 and Warn.
• Innovative Products: Get the scoop on the latest developments, including the USA-made Roper X leather gloves and the new XEON XP winch line from Warn.
• Educational Initiatives: Justin discusses the importance of education in off-road recovery techniques and the upcoming training certification program.
• Personal Insights: Enjoy personal anecdotes, including Justin's journey from Pittsburgh to Boise and the impact of the off-road community on his life.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation that explores the intersection of passion, innovation, and community in the off-road industry. Whether you're a seasoned off-roader or new to the scene, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration.

Transcript

[00:00:05.100] 

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.

[00:00:46.400] 

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.

[00:01:12.320] - Big Rich Klein

My next guest has been moving and groovin' and groovin' in the last 11 years in off road. But with a start playing a saxophone in band, and then in a Scottish punk band, that might be expected. Justin Andrews keeps it real. Justin Andrews. So good to have you on the podcast. Known you since the early days of Factor 55, when we did a factory visit with you guys. Yeah. With Four Low magazine. Yeah. So here we are. That's awesome. Here we are. And you've got a much larger role in off-road, you might say, but we'll get into all that. So how are you doing?

[00:01:55.440] - Justin Andrews

I'm doing great, Rich, and thank you so much, man, for inviting me on here. And I just always love connecting with you. And so this is just tickled to death, man. I'm so excited.

[00:02:06.500] - Big Rich Klein

It just hasn't happened enough lately.

[00:02:08.940] - Justin Andrews

Long-time listener, first-time caller.

[00:02:11.270] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, here we go. So let's start off with the first question that I ask everybody, where were you born and raised?

[00:02:20.680] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, so that's a fun complicated story in a lot of ways, but I was actually born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So that's where my whole family is from. Then we moved around a lot as I was growing up and ping-ponged around different sides of the country until we ended up in Boise, Idaho. When we got here, It's pretty wild, man, because when we got here, there was nothing. You know what I mean? There was just still farms everywhere. There was probably less than 300,000 people that lived in this valley, and now it's tipping close to a million. That growth from the late '80s into the early 2000s has been substantial, and especially ever since COVID. Now, we ended up coming out here to Idaho, went to high school here, went to college here, was actually going to go and leave and go back to college in Pennsylvania. That was my initial thought, or to join the military. I ended up getting a full ride to Boise State when I graduated high school for music For music? For music, yeah. So I went to college for music, of all things, yeah. So I played a saxophone. For those who know or have heard about it, I used to bring it out to King of the Hammers and play it on the Lake or bring it to shows.

[00:03:46.780] - Justin Andrews

We would do funny things back in the day hanging out of the Jeep, an Easter Jeep safari, playing the saxophone and stuff. So I was actually talking to Rich on a trail here. I was like, Hey, man, if I started a band, did I play the festival? So I'm trying to weasel my way into that. But I went to College for Music, yeah, and I actually started playing in a Scottish punk band right afterwards with some of my really good friends, and then especially through my early '20s, that ended up being the thing that just took off for us. We ended up playing on the Warped. Yeah, we ended up playing on the Warped tour. We played with bands like Dropkick Murfies and Rancid, I huge bands. We did that for years and years and years. Then during some of the lulls and breaks and times of during the band, I actually had also, after 9/11 and all these things, actually tried to get in the military for close to 10 years. Was something I was always really interested in doing, but I could never get that to work. I actually went to Mets 10 times trying to get into the military.

[00:04:56.060] - Justin Andrews

The tattoo policies at the time, I'd already had both of my sleeves done by the time I was 23. That was 2003. I couldn't get in because I'm nearsighted, and so I wear contacts. Negative eight is the worst your myopia can be or your nearsightedness. I was negative nine in my left eye, and I needed a medical waiver to enlist, and they wouldn't take me because of that at the time. I was always looking for something else that would get me involved in doing something else as a career when we would have these lulls in being on tour. I ended up getting certified for scuba. I grew up in that early '80s, end of the '90s generation of kids were like, if you remember, back on Sunday nights, there used to be an NBC. Nbc on Sunday nights used to have a... There was always Jack Hannah's Wild Kingdom, or right before the Disney Movie movie came on on Sunday nights on NBC. If it wasn't Wild Kingdom, it was the undersea world of Jacques Cousteau. I always remember being super inspired by that. Then I actually got certified for scuba, became a dive instructor, was teaching scuba actually out in Hawaii after once I moved, after '08, when the market crashed, moved back to Idaho.

[00:06:25.120] - Justin Andrews

After that, the band got back together a little bit that was going on. I was I was in a bar tending at the time, actually. When I moved back to Idaho, I bought my first Jeep, and I was like, I'm going to take the doors off and be a cool guy. It's going to be so fun, and chicks are going to be in to me and the whole thing. Then the guy that was actually a buddy of mine named Bryson, who was working the door for me and I played music with and stuff at the bar I was managing, he was like, Hey, man, have you ever heard a King of the Hammers? I was like, What is that? That sounds crazy. He goes, Oh, it's this thing, and whatever. And never did I think in that moment, think back to that now, that I would have been going there every year for the rest of my life or actually get the opportunity to race the thing. You know what I mean? It's this crazy thing that we're like, I bought this Jeep thinking that it was going to be... You know what I mean?

[00:07:23.590] - Justin Andrews

It was just going to be this fun, cool activity, and I would feel like a cool guy, and then let alone that it would open up this entire career path.

[00:07:32.110] - Big Rich Klein

So much you get sucked in, you're in.

[00:07:34.660] - Justin Andrews

Dude, right? It's like the Mafia. What can you say?

[00:07:37.260] - Big Rich Klein

So when you were in school, what student were you? Were you a good student or were you borderline, just get by to get out and do the other things you want to do?

[00:07:52.260] - Justin Andrews

That was absolutely it. In fact, well, actually, in high school, it was exactly the opposite. So in high school, I took summer school on purpose, specifically to take more music classes during the school year. Okay. I went and did all... I was like, Math and science, that sucks. I would just go to summer school and do all the math and science and the hard classes when the teachers didn't care about being there, and it was just easy to get through them. You ace all through that stuff. Then during the rest of the school year, I could actually take more elective classes. I lettered in high school, my letter in jacket We're like marching band, and jazz band, and choir. That's what I did. It was a pretty funny experience.

[00:08:35.660] - Big Rich Klein

So instead of having a football or a basketball or a baseball on your Letterman jacket, did it have a little saxophone? It was a saxophone. Okay.

[00:08:42.500] - Justin Andrews

Hell, yeah, it was. Yeah, bro. Eagle High School Mustangs. What's up?

[00:08:47.540] - Big Rich Klein

The Mustangs. So the high school I went to was the Mustangs, but it was San Francisco Bay Area, Cappuccino Mustangs.

[00:08:54.420] - Justin Andrews

That's awesome. But yeah, man, so it was pretty funny. I got into that. I I've always just jumped into stuff like anything I got into, I got super passionate about. So scuba was another one of those things. I was like, if I could get into the Coast Guard or the Navy, then I was still interested in working on boats. I've always been fascinated by the ocean and by the sea. So when I got certified for scuba, I instantly got my diving certification, then went right into getting my advanced, my rescue, my dive master, and then became an open water instructor. So It really served me well because that program actually taught a lot of how to speak in front of people and how to really go over the basis of educational programs. You're going to tell them what you teach them, you teach it to them, you tell them what you taught them. Now with some of the new initiatives that we'll get into here in a bit from Warnup Factor 55, that's what's making a huge difference in the marketing play. It's I'm crazy about that is as I got that Jeep, in one year, I think, I had the thing.

[00:10:10.960] - Justin Andrews

I initially put it on a two-inch budget boost and 35s, and then it was on 37s and a long arm and all these things. I didn't even know how to change my own oil. I didn't know what I was doing. You know what I mean? To start from ground zero. And that's why when I talk to guides like your son, you, for instance. I mean, anybody, any core people around this industry, I'm always so jealous, man, that they got to grow up with it. Right.

[00:10:41.380] - Big Rich Klein

Because band geeks weren't into cars.

[00:10:45.940] - Justin Andrews

No, no. Not at all. That's not a thing. Yeah.

[00:10:49.300] - Big Rich Klein

In fact, most of them that I know, I think, didn't even start driving early.

[00:10:56.580] - Justin Andrews

So I didn't... Dude, so hilarious. I didn't either. I didn't get my driver's license till I was 19, dude.

[00:11:02.140] - Big Rich Klein

See, that's what I mean. It's crazy. Man, I was itching. It was like, come on, come on, come on. Exactly. Weeks away, and I'm like, come on, it's not going fast enough.

[00:11:13.120] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, man. So it's so crazy to think that my career ended up being in a motor sports. Yeah, right? It's crazy.

[00:11:21.440] - Big Rich Klein

So how come your family went from Pittsburgh and jumped around to Boise? Were your parents chasing jobs, or what Was it?

[00:11:31.180] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, it was just looking for... It was trying to find a way of... I guess the easiest answer to that is to say it was a break in the family curse. That was the way to approach that. But yeah, it was... When we ended up out here, it was a wonderful experience. I can really tell you through knowing myself. Culture shock. Yeah, dude, never seen a horse before. I didn't know they were seven feet tall. I mean, eight feet tall. See him on TV, you're like, Oh, that's cool. I'm going there like, Oh, my God. But that was a wild experience coming from this inner city vibe of what Pittsburgh is. Even Pittsburgh is It wasn't really that big, but it was a full city. You know what I mean? It was a big industrial place. Then coming to like, Little Boise, Idaho, and now Boise is booming, too. It was pretty wild, man. That was a crazy way to grow up, but it really gave me the opportunity to be creative. My parents were, especially my mom, man, she really pushed me in a direction to allow that artistic nature to grow. And so it was a wonderful experience, man.

[00:12:48.270] - Justin Andrews

I can't say more about it, man.

[00:12:50.660] - Big Rich Klein

The only problem with Boise, well, Ida County, is that it votes blue. It's the only county in all of Idaho that votes blue.

[00:13:05.600] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, we are a very blue community in a very red state.

[00:13:09.440] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And it's from everybody leaving Washington, Oregon, in California.

[00:13:16.900] - Justin Andrews

Well, it's funny, man. You look at it like outside of the Treasure Valley, it is very rural here. I think a lot of people don't realize that, that even just north of us, as soon as you head up into McCall or getting even further up, and then once you hit into Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint that area, the majority of the center of the state is the Frank Church Wilderness. It's pack in, pack out. It's no vehicle recreation. I mean, it was Just even starting out jeeping here was so difficult because the local clubs at the time had a wheel-based restriction because they didn't want kids with mid-size trucks and things like that, trying to join these off-road clubs and finding out where the actual legal places to wheel were at or where the trails were at and have them going out there tearing up the trail. I bought a four-door JK. It's how this whole thing started. I couldn't even join the off-road club because my wheelbase was too long. That's how short-sighted that they were being at the time. We ended up starting our own off-road club, which was exileded Off-Road. Before we knew it, we had one of the largest off-road groups in the state of Idaho.

[00:14:34.020] - Justin Andrews

Then that led me to start seeing... Like, dude, like anything else, you get obsessed into something, and so what do you do? I signed up for Pirate, I got on the Started getting on the forums. I was on the Jeep forum. I just dumped into all these things to try to research and find out information about the new thing that I really loved. The same thing came with winching. You know what I mean? It was like, of course, I'm going to get a Warn winch. That's what you do, right? That was the thing. That led me to look at Genright, Teraflex. I found out about King of the Hammers. I remember the first time I saw Eric Miller's car, I was like, Well, what's that thing hanging off the front of the winch? Now, knowing our car hole history at Factor 55, Mike had gone down to the Lakebed walking around with products in a backpack and started to seed these things out and like guerrilla marketing to people, previous to me getting hired there. Just some of the first initial prototypes when Factor 55 first started. Then I saw these through social media, and I started going like, Well, these guys are professionals, Larry McRay, and then hearing about Lance and looking at all these Jeep builds that I was already interested in, inspiring to all the builds from the Curry's.

[00:15:58.110] - Justin Andrews

I keep thinking about all that stuff, like even Walker Evans old rig. All these things that were so fresh and brand new to me that were now this legendary status of what they are. Started seeing all these bits and pieces on the end of the winch, and I was like, Well, those guys are pros, so they got to know what they're doing. So what is that? Like, Factor 55, Boise, Idaho. I live here. You know what I mean? I thought instantly this could be my ticket to take my newfound passion in off road and find a way into Getting to go to events or get to go wheeling more because I was bartending. Like, dude, I didn't go to work till eight o'clock at night. I'd wake up at 8: 00 or 9: 00 AM and then meet up with my buddies and head out to the O'ahu's, and we would go. Dude, it was Every day. It was literally relentless. We were taking those things out and wheeling every single day. I always like to laugh with people that, Here it is in a situation where all I wanted to do was go wheeling.

[00:16:59.380] - Justin Andrews

Now, that's the thing that I don't get to do enough of. Working in the industry. I tell people that all the time, too. It's now been close to 12 years that I've been in the industry and working in the industry, the whole thing. Still, all of my obsessions are around off-road. I don't golf. I don't own a boat. I want to get in my Jeep and I want to drive it to dirt. That's the only thing that feels relaxing to me. It's just a part of me now. The fact that I get to do that and talk about it at work every day is just... I feel so lucky, dude.

[00:17:43.420] - Big Rich Klein

That's one reason why everybody goes to these big trail events and want to represent their companies, whether it's Moab, Easter Jeep, Safari, or Trail Hero or KOH, or whatever, so that they get time to wheel because that's the only time they get to wheel.

[00:18:07.400] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, exactly. Because for a lot, you could call it work all you want. But for me, I'm getting paid to go on vacation, baby. Right. You know what I mean? It's like, that's the perfect job ever. Since I met Mike, like I said, I went down there, I researched the company. I just stopped by there one day. Actually, we used to laugh about it because the first night I met Mike was on Valentine's Day, and I was in there and I was so fascinated. He was talking about, You see this opening here? It's only 9,000. You see how we cut the logo into the fair lead? Do you know what I mean? We were all talking in this, Here I am meeting this fantastic engineer and a guy that would end up being so inspirational to me and being a second dad. Who would have thought in those moments I was going to spend so much time with him? We were both late to our Valentine's Day dinners that night. What do you mean? Because we sat in the shop talking shop all night long before we were supposed to go meet up. His wife, who used to run all of our accounting and stuff at Factor 55 back in the day, she always used to laugh about that.

[00:19:19.780] - Justin Andrews

Every time Valentine's Day would come around, she's like, You know, that's my day with this guy. You took that away from me. You know what I mean? It was pretty funny, man, how that became the thing. But yeah, I met him down there on Valentine's Day that time. I actually went to Easter Jeep safari for the very first time ever that year with a group of my friends for Bolly Dog, crazy enough. We went down Moab. My first time in Moab was wheeling down there in support of Bully Dog, and then right after- Bully Dog Diesel. Yeah, exactly. Because they had a tuner. Do you remember they had a little tuner?

[00:19:55.080] - Big Rich Klein

The guys out of Eastern, Idaho.

[00:19:57.240] - Justin Andrews

Exactly. Yeah, so we met up down with them to do a bunch of marketing things. I initially just rolled right in EJS, like a blasted bully dog down the side of my Jeep and the whole thing. And then later that, I had a meeting with Mike early June that year. Then I started working at Factor 55 officially as an employee the beginning of July. I just had my work anniversary again. That was just over 11 years ago.

[00:20:30.000] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, okay. So, wow, that's just 2014?

[00:20:35.120] - Justin Andrews

Yeah. Crazy, huh? Is that wild?

[00:20:38.200] - Big Rich Klein

I would thought you had been in the industry longer.

[00:20:41.840] - Justin Andrews

I know. Is that what I'd say? That shows you the impact I'm making, Rich. Oh, yeah. That's what passion will get you.

[00:20:46.920] - Big Rich Klein

That's it. Exactly. And a little ADD.

[00:20:51.140] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, that's right, man. Yeah. And then we just started off. It was like this mom and pop shop. It was this small little boutique thing here in Boise. And then we just hit it hard, man, and we're able to continue to innovate and come up with new products and grow the brand to the place that it was. And then five years ago, we got acquired by Warn Industries. Then now, over the last five years, we've been involved with the whole Warn family of brands, which now they acquired us, and then they bought FAB Tech suspension and then FAB 4 bumpers. Then now we're just crank away, man. Now we got the semi out at all the shows and doing the whole thing. It's pretty wild. Then just after Andy Lilienthal stepped back to focus on his endeavors, he was the communications manager at Warn. This was going on, I guess, three years ago now at this point. Andy left, and then I stepped into the brand manager role at Warn and Factor 55. I do brand for both brands.

[00:22:01.120] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. And do you still have that JK?

[00:22:08.680] - Justin Andrews

Here, you ready for this story? I'm not trying to call anybody out here, but this is pretty funny. So I had a four-door JK Sahara, beat the car out of that thing, right? I mean, it camped in the O'ahu's a few times without me. It blew up the ring gear, all kinds of stuff. Woody, actually, Woody told me years ago when I first had met him, when he still owned I hate mud, Woody told me a story about how he had to deal with a ringing pinion issue on the trail one time, and he had opened up a Zip lock bag to catch all the gear oil in the Zip lock, and then was able to reshem whatever he needed to do in there, and then put the ziploc bag just back in the diff in order to drive it home, and then was going to clean it out, clean out the plastic bag and the whole thing. I actually had to pull that. I had to do that one time. I can never thank Woody enough for that trail hack. That saved my life one time. But so I had a four-door Jeep, and then it just turned out at the time, like, dude, I just didn't have the room.

[00:23:07.060] - Justin Andrews

Excuse me, I had too much room. And I would always... It's funny is that when I had that four-door Jeep, I just noticed that I would never get in the back of it because it was too far to get to anything. So it always ended up going in the rear passenger door to throw my stuff in there. I was like, What am I doing with this big ass Jeep? You know what I'm saying? It's like they're doing a breakover angles and all these things. It was only on 37s, and so it was still like, obstacles were a thing. There was no lockers. I still hadn't put lockers in it yet. Then it came up that there was a two-door JK Rubicon that was for sale, and I was able to trade in my Jeep, get that two-door JK, and my car payment went down $100 a month. Then it was lockers and the whole thing. Now, this is the big kicker. Now being involved in the industry and knowing what I know, there was that JK, and then there was a burnt orange LJ that was on the lot that was even cheaper. That was a Rubicon, the whole thing.

[00:24:16.420] - Justin Andrews

I literally jumped. I talk about this all the time. I jumped in that Jeep and looked at it and was like, This dash looks old. I don't know. I'm like, Just get struck it off, dude. Now I would literally kill any to get just to have a clean LJ in my life. You know what I mean?

[00:24:34.720] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely.

[00:24:35.760] - Justin Andrews

I just watched the unicorn walk away. But yeah, so yes, I still have my two-door JK. It's an '08, three-eight liter dog Jeep. It went through all kinds of iterations, but it's stretched, all aluminum armor, custom cage, the whole thing now. But It is in the process of getting a motor swap, which has been a crazy story because the motor let go in that thing close to three years ago. I was teaching a recovery class and was driving home right at the beginning of the summer, and it was like, perfect day. Half doors on, top down, blaring music, feeling really cool. As soon as I turned in my neighborhood, the thing just I could just feel the whole thing ruptured, like spun the bearing, and the whole thing. Then I'm sitting in my driveway crying oil for the next six months. You got to think this is now going into '21, I think at the time, is when it first happened. Then we ended up buying a Gladiator, which I built up and had a bunch of the events, brought it out to Easter Jeep. I love that car. But it got to a point to where, again, with the Gladiator, I I was just getting closer to getting the JK done and getting it back on the road.

[00:26:07.400] - Justin Andrews

Then I sold the Gladiator thinking I was going to get the Jeep back sooner than I have. But my Jeep is actually currently at Martin Castro's shop, and Martin is helping me get that motor put in the JK. But he then transitioned from working at Milestar to now working at SoCal Expedition and Freight Factory. And so he's working over there with Bayly Cole. And so then they bought two bombers and have been racing hammers in the onslaught of his new job and this whole thing. So it's like, I'm at a point now where I'm ready to get my Jeep back. So I still have it, but not in my current possession. So it will be coming back sooner than later. So I cannot wait to get that thing back out on the trails.

[00:26:50.220] - Big Rich Klein

I understand those long builds or down times. In 2017, we decided that we were going to upgrade the old Black Beater We Rock Cherokee and picked up a '98 in an auction with a bad motor, but The thing was the body was pristine. And so I said, okay, I'm going to do a V8 swap. I'm going to go with the long arms, front and rear, get rid of the... Go to a four link rear, really do this thing right, because I love the Cherokee platform, right? Because I never had AC in the old black Cherokee, and I thought, well, I'll do a V8 swap. I'll have that good GM AC system. Do you know that thing is we're just a couple of weeks away now from getting it on the road. We started this project in '18. Is that crazy or what?

[00:27:52.640] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Oh, my God. I cannot wait to see that. That is- I'm insanely jealous Man, that's great.

[00:28:00.890] - Big Rich Klein

So 2018 to 2025.

[00:28:05.180] - Justin Andrews

Wow. Yeah, so dude, I think a lot of people probably experience this, too. Like, right after the big problem ended up being like, this would have been done so much longer ago, except the fact that as soon as COVID happened, and then it was like, then where they were getting radiators and where it was getting parts and like, you know what I mean? It just turned into this lingering thing that's been happening there. And dude, and God bless Martin, man. I had been gone through this whole thing of trying to get it done. I went through a period of where we were moving multiple houses. I had an Airbnb property at one point and it went upside down. I mean, it was a whole nightmare that we went through over the last couple of years. Then everything settled out now. But it was this whole situation in my personal life that was also making to where my daughter is now four. It was also like This was something swapping the motors outside of my skillset in my garage. Do you know what I'm saying? I would love to help somebody to do that or to go through that process, but I don't have all the things to do this.

[00:29:11.240] - Justin Andrews

Boise is like an island. You know what I mean? There aren't just these rad, crazy custom build shops that are around here. The guys that are available that know how to do that stuff in a really skilled way that are really proficient welders and things like that, they're booked out. So it got into a really frustrating time. And so Martin was so gracious to step up to help me out to do this. And luckily, I had another Jeep, and for what it's worth, man, I'm like, Dude, we do 50 trade shows a year. So I'm constantly traveling and on the road. And so it's just taking a lot of time up from doing that. And so, yeah, man, I'm lingering on to the day that I can get my Jeep back. And now I'm even looking a bit... Now, that's also been that thing like, Do I buy another one? I don't want to start all over. I got all the parts I need. I mean, the Jeep's done. I mean, he just needed to get the motor put in there. So hopefully I'll see that. Hopefully, it won't be much longer. So super jealous, but I can't wait to see that thing.

[00:30:12.910] - Justin Andrews

You're going to have it out of Trail Hero? What's up? Where are we going to see that Jeep at?

[00:30:16.440] - Big Rich Klein

I don't know where it's going to get debued. I'm saying a couple of weeks. Shelle is of the mind of, We'll wait and see when it actually shows, when it sees the light, the actual top of the pavement.

[00:30:34.800] - Justin Andrews

Isn't that the beautiful thing about all of our ladies, man? Just keeping us in line. Right. Keep us grounded on our dreams.

[00:30:41.710] - Big Rich Klein

It'll be her daily driver, and then it'll be my Rubicon rig next year for sure, because it'll be done by spring of next year, completed.

[00:30:50.350] - Justin Andrews

You know, what's so wild is when we came into that COVID time through that, in fact, because that's when we got acquired by Warren. I actually was working the Four Wheeler Adventure Expo in Costa Mesa, came home from working that event, came home Monday, found out my wife was pregnant. And then, so I worked that show, came home, found out Ashley was pregnant. And then Wednesday, Warren bought the company, and then Friday was COVID lockdown.

[00:31:21.960] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:31:23.220] - Justin Andrews

Yes, that was an interesting week, to say the least.

[00:31:26.900] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah. And so was Mike looking to sell Factor 55 and step away, or did they just approach?

[00:31:40.400] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, so honestly, since day one, Mike's idea was to build up the... I mean, he told me from the very first time I interviewed with him that he was always looking to build the brand up enough to get to a place to where that he could either license out the products to somebody else or to sell the company. There was always an end goal in his mind for that because that was why we went through the process of going through all the patents that we have and doing everything that we did through the innovative products and expanding the product line and really promoting better education and safer techniques in the vehicle recovery. Then look, who would have thought at that time, even now, that vehicle recovery is one of the most prominent things that's all over the For YouTube, right? To go from the start of that to my first released his very first product, I think in 2012, and then I was the first employee that he hired. Essentially moving into building up the brand. It was pretty wild, man. I did everything, right? From the social media stuff, marketing, inside-outside sales, did all the events, Any technical support, customer service, I mean, all of it.

[00:33:02.380] - Justin Andrews

I dealt with all the dealers, I mean, all the wholesale distribution. I mean, I did everything all the way up until when Warren bought the company. It was a crazy ride, man. We had been approached by a lot of other organizations, and Mike would always just... It wasn't the right deal. He was also very protective about the brand, as am I. We wanted to to make sure that it would live on with its legacy. We're barely scratching the surface for the stuff that we have yet to release and the things that we have yet to have come out. He was very choosy about it. And Warn, when it finally approached, they were the right target. I mean, we were the right target for them because, look, they were even at one point, they were trying to knock our products. They had come out with a couple of different products that they were trying to spin in a different way that would be workarounds of our patents and the whole deal. And honestly, they were not big successes for Warn as a company. And it really turned into It really felt like if you can't beat him, you buy him.

[00:34:17.710] - Justin Andrews

That's what happened. It's been an amazing relationship that's here. I can't thank Mike enough all that he taught me over the years. Now, it put me in a position to have the career that I have. Now, I also get to be the guy that's the face of the oldest and biggest winch brand on the planet. I mean, it's the coolest thing ever to me. I feel so grateful every day. It's so privileged to work for such a legacy brand and a company that's been involved in so much history that has allowed us to where we are in off-road today. A lot of that has stemmed from that innovation and product development that Warren created, which helped to create so many things in our industry that I think a lot of people don't know about.

[00:35:10.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Well, people don't even understand that Warren Where the beginning of Warren started with Thurston.

[00:35:20.540] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, I would do. Even with his dad, Arthur. Yeah, absolutely. I asked this as we teach recovery classes at these certain events, one of the first things I always ask is when I introduce myself and tell everybody that I work at Warren, was like, Does anybody know what started Warren Industries? Do you know Rich? Do you know what started Warren Industries?

[00:35:42.500] - Big Rich Klein

No.

[00:35:44.140] - Justin Andrews

The locking hub.

[00:35:45.700] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, was it The locking hub? Oh, wow.

[00:35:47.600] - Justin Andrews

The locking hub. In 1948, Arthur Warren invented the locking hub. And funny enough about that, it's his drive to invent the locking hub was they actually had a car dealership in Seattle, Washington. And so they were getting military surplus Jeeps over from World War II that were full-time four-wheel drive. So they're actually, funny enough, they invented the locking hub to make the Jeep more drivable on the street, which was so ironic. You know what I mean? We're so deep-seated and off-road. But already by the early '50s, they were supplying to every OE on the planet, essentially, when it came to hubs for four-wheel drive vehicles. Then in 1959, Warren released the very first electric winch. Then when Arthur passed and Thurston became the President of Warren, that's led into the late '60s, early '70s, which gave us the iconic '82, '74. Then Thurston himself, in support of him with what you got going on, was in the inaugural class of the Offrove Hall of Fame. He was one of the first 16 inductees into the Hall of Fame Dick Seapeck, Parnelly Jones, Steve McQueen, and James Garner, Thurston Warren, man. It's pretty wild, man, that the legacy and the history of all of that product development and innovation that is under the Warren family name.

[00:37:16.940] - Justin Andrews

Now, come to find out, now working for the company, when Thurston's son, Mike, took over Warren, going into the '80s and '90s, he ran that company so well. It was just got to place where Mike, even Mike Warren was at a place where I think nobody... They were three generations deep in a run in this business. Warren's been in business for 77 years. It got into that place where he I think the stress, watching his dad go through everything as he growed up. I've heard all these stories from some of the old timers at the plant. That was like nobody else in the Warren family really wanted to run it at the time. Then that's when he offloaded Warren to the Dover Corporation. Then LKQ acquired Warren close to 10 years ago, almost at this point. But that's our parent company. We're now under LKQ now. But what's crazy is that even that being said, Warren still feels and operates a family-run business. Some of the employees that are there, some that you know, Chad Schroll, Patrick Storm, who's one of our sales directors. I mean, these guys have been working there since the '80s.

[00:38:38.660] - Justin Andrews

They've been there the entire time, worked hand in hand with the Warren family, and there are so much legacy and history in the plant there in Clacumis. Really, it's such a phenomenal experience going to that plant and seeing the 300,000 square feet that they have, the manufacturing capability, the huge machines, the broach machines that are hogging out the gears that go into winches, and seeing those winches being built right there in Clackamas, and the amount of manufacturing that is still happening there in here in America that so many people just don't know about. Even myself, I didn't know about that either. I was really blown away.

[00:39:22.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I have visited the factory. It's a cool operation.

[00:39:27.600] - Justin Andrews

It's phenomenal, right? What a neat experience to see there, Fred Williams just put out a YouTube video. He just was at the plant just a couple of weeks ago and built an 8274 at the plant. Oh, wow. So that's a great... He does a great personal walk around of the plant right now. The technology and the things that we have, and now, over the last few years, we really worked that place to get into an ISO quality facility. That goes in all the OE partnership stuff that we do, right with Jeep, with Ford, Toyota, all these things. It's brilliant, man. That deep, rich legacy of that company is now having all the passion of taking that up to having our boutique little brand and really trying to make the best accessories that we can and the safest accessories to use for vehicle recovery and have that be with the innovators and the inventors of the electric winch. It's like, dude, it's the perfect marriage. You know what I mean? It's the perfect situation to be in, for real.

[00:40:39.680] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Then you guys are also teamed up with FAB 4 and FAB Tech. Fab 4 bumpers, yeah.

[00:40:47.790] - Justin Andrews

Fab 4, it's crazy. Like with those guys, part of the deal was it got into... There's a whole long history of Warned Bumbers, right? And some of those bumpers and a lot of large scale manufacturing, there's just, what are we not making more of? And it's land, right? And so trying to expand in the Clackamus area was really hard. And so as you become a huge business, the only way that you can also just grow is by acquisition. Part of the idea there was, is that when it came to fleet service vehicles, especially our industrial customers, was to better serve them to say, not only Finally, can you get your winch and your recovery gear and the accessories you need to use your winch, but now you could get high-quality USA made bumpers along with upfitted suspension. Now you could have a bundled package, especially for those industrial customers. It's been a really great partnership deal there. Fab Tech had a long history in racing and off road. That was really cool. That was an easy in to bring them in. Then with FAB 4s, arguably, it was pretty wild, because as an outsider looking in, us as jeepers are like the grumper is the dumbest thing on the planet.

[00:42:12.210] - Justin Andrews

You know what I mean?

[00:42:12.700] - Big Rich Klein

Right. But it was a marketing, but it It was a marketing sensation.

[00:42:16.910] - Justin Andrews

Oh, my God, dude. That's the thing. I remember talking to Greg about that, Greg Higgs, who was the former owner of FAB 4s. He was like, Well, if... He was really building art cars, and it was interesting. You know what I mean? Yeah, for some people, it is the worst thing ever. But, dude, the people that love that thing, love it. It is amazing to see they're passionate about that. Even while a step from that, Everything outside of the grumper, FAB 4s makes incredible bumpers for super duties and a large scale truck, and even the simple Stubby bumpers that they make, especially even for the JL and the JTs, they're phenomenal. They are so much more... Like, FAB 4s is so much more than the grumper. It was really cool to get to know them. Then look at Greg. Greg's now living in St. George and has always been into rear steer buggies. Fab 4s has always been like, he's been over to Japan rock crawling with all the guys. You know what I'm saying? That guy has been an avid, hard core wheeler, and it was It's crazy to think that you had something like FAB 4s, like the grumper being out there, but still had this deep love and passion for off-road.

[00:43:40.320] - Justin Andrews

And getting to meet them and getting to understand really what their mindset was of creating their brand has been a phenomenal experience, man.

[00:43:48.820] - Big Rich Klein

I've got FAB 4's adventure rack on the raptor, and it's a phenomenal product.

[00:43:59.400] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, they got They have a great design and engineering team there. And then the biggest portion of that part of that acquisition was now like some of the bumpers that we were having made outside of the Warn factory now could all be done and offloaded for fabrication work out of FAB force. Other Warn product could be built in FAB force facility. It was a beautiful manufacturing and growth for us to be able to do that. It's the same thing with us. We built a second building on our machine shop, and we're able to expand doing so much more product under the Warren brand, because that's why they acquired us, too, was manufacturing capability.

[00:44:48.100] - Big Rich Klein

When Factor 55 got bought by Warren, how many SKUs did you guys have? What was your product line depth?

[00:44:59.660] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, I mean, even right now, in all fairness here, you got to look like you take the ultra hook, for instance, and it comes in nine different colors. So that's nine skews just right there. But really, it's one part. It's just a color variation. So Considering that, total, there's only about 200 SKUs that we even have to offer currently. And that's even just because of the depthness of the color expansion. Mike always used to laugh that he said, If it was up to him, we would have made everything in the Mill spec hard anodized gray. He would have never done any color. He would have just done it all in Mill spec hard anodized and kept everything simple and kept the inventory lean. Then if it was up to me, Every time Jeep came out with a new factory color, I would have made a paint code to match whatever that was. That way everybody could just get their matching parts and pieces. As it sits right now, we have about 250 I think, total right now, and we have close to 300 new products to release. That's not even a joke. It's the amount of stuff that we've seen and been waiting on a product development and has been pretty phenomenal.

[00:46:17.520] - Justin Andrews

We've been able to get a lot of things accomplished since the acquisition. But one of those deals has also been... It was about assimilating into their systems because before we used to... We could prototype, test, and release a product in 10 days. You know what I mean? We could come up with an idea, design the thing, get some prototypes made, test them, and then put them up on the website for sale and let the community dictate what the desire was. It was really fluid, and we operated like that for forever, especially with all the CEMA Awards that we've won over the years and all those things. It gave us to be really nimble and fluid, and that became That's a consistent thing. Then again, acquisition COVID screwed a lot of that up. Then as we adhered into a lot bigger systems with Warn, and a product gets released, that product is now a It has to meet a whole other level of standards because those products have the opportunity to be purchased by an OE manufacturer. That's PPAP and all these requirements and so much paperwork. It's so much more than what other people... When you see a that you can get on your Rubicon when you go to the dealership to buy it, to get that project done is years of work.

[00:47:40.440] - Justin Andrews

From crash test ratings and DOT standards and so much stuff that it goes into this. And thank God, we have such a passionate team on our OE team that handles that. So now that was the same thing with our product line. It also expanded out to where now when we release those products, They got to be CE-compliant so they can be sold globally. We had dealers in other countries, but not in a scale of distribution that Lauren does. So we have to adhere to all the CE-compliances. We have to make sure that all of our stuff can be held up to all the lot traceability standards for all the things that we sell to the government. I mean, it is so much more than what people ever see at face value for the companies and the brands, and the amount of effort that the engineers and the people that are working on the shop floor every day, like handle and do. I mean, it's amazing. It's really, really amazing.

[00:48:43.480] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. So what's on the horizon? Just getting more of this product out?

[00:48:50.600] - Justin Andrews

Yeah. Actually, today, of all day, serendipitously, today of all day, I'm so excited. You're going to be the first to hear about it right now. We We actually are releasing a brand new product today. And that new product that we're releasing today is a brand new USA made leather glove. And this has been like Three years in the making to get to this place. It is going to be called the Roper X. It is a winching and recovery-specific glove. It is made with American hides. It's got bison, American bison on the palm. It's got elk on the top, so it's got super rugged leather on the bottom of the hand with really flexible leather on the top of the hand. It's two-tone, so the bison leather is really a brownish-redish color. Then the elk is that classic cowboy elk roper, you know what I mean? Like yellowish. Yeah, that color on the top. It's super flexible, really durable. Some cool One of the things that we did with the glove design was that it has a wide flare around the wrist, so that's easy to get on and off. It also has a snap that can snap the glove to keep it tight around the wrist when you want that on there.

[00:50:13.600] - Justin Andrews

Underneath, below the wrist on the palm side, there's an oval hole that's stamped and cut out in the leather that actually helps to pull the gloves on your hand even easier to get them snug up to the end of your fingertips. It also acts as a carabiner holder, so you can snap a carabiner through the insides of it, and then you can always have your gloves hanging off your pants while you're out there. Because, again, where do you put your gloves? Every time you go to look for them, they're always like, Are they in the door? Did you leave them in the bag?

[00:50:46.590] - Big Rich Klein

Where are they? Or are they back at the garage, at the house? Yeah.

[00:50:50.220] - Justin Andrews

Yeah. You got two rights and two lefts. How do you keep them together? So that was a really cool thing that we got to add in there for the design of the glove. It's got the Factor 55 brand on the top of it. The gloves are actually being manufactured in Bend, Oregon, from a company called the Sullivan Glove Company. We got a great partnership deal, worked out with them. Sullivan Glove has actually been in business since 1941. They're actually seven years older of a brand than Warn Industries is. They've been using high-quality US hides for just, dude, 86 years. It's amazing, man. It's this boutique cool little glove shop, and we were able to work with them to develop this wonderful product to put out in the market that is not just a cheap pair of mechanics gloves. You know what I mean? It is an additional tool. Maybe what I'd like to say is the number one recovery tool. The very first thing that you should be doing before you start anything in a vehicle recovery is to put your gloves on and to make sure that you can keep yourself being an asset rather than a liability.

[00:52:06.100] - Justin Andrews

This, I think, is going to be a phenomenal experience to put these out in the market. One other neat thing, too, is because of that reddish hide on the on the palms. Also for spotting. When I got my hands up, you're going to see it's like, Stop, stop, stop. Then when I turn them around and it's this yellow hide on the top, now it's go, go, go. The two-tone works really well for that. Then even because it's this high-quality leather, whether you're up underneath a vehicle, grabbing on a hot exhaust or trying to rig up something, or if you got to weld on the trail, now you got a badass pair of leather gloves that will last years. You know what I mean?

[00:52:49.450] - Big Rich Klein

And so I can- They're not going to melt away like all the mechanics clothes and all those types.

[00:52:53.560] - Justin Andrews

I was talking a day long about this, or a thing about this, the spotters, the guys at the We Rock competitions that moving boulders and moving rocks around. Guys just blow through gloves, just dragging them over top of the rocks because they're not durable enough to withstand even those just moving dirt and rocks around. So to have this high quality work pair of gloves and it be... We always laugh, man. Cowboys had that figured out a long time ago. Yeah, right? So to have this thing to be worked out, to be similar to a cowboy roper. This glove is now going to be called the Roper X, and those are going to be available starting today on factor55. Com. So I'm thrilled to have those out in the market. And once you get them and break them in, they get buttery soft. I've had one pair for three years, and I'm winching all the time. I'm using them all the time, everywhere I go. And so I'm so excited to have that and be able to show that off in the market space. So I'm really, really I'm thrilled. It'd be a high-quality USA made product, too, as well.

[00:54:03.700] - Justin Andrews

That was always a thing that we could never get done because everything with Factor 55 has been US manufacturing. A lot of traceability on the materials, everything being built here, all of that. It was really important to us to find a way to have a glove and have that option be there. Now for it to be a US product on top of it is just like, that's the hill I'll die on. You know what I mean?

[00:54:30.540] - Big Rich Klein

No, for sure. What about on the Warrant side? Anything new coming that we can talk about?

[00:54:37.400] - Justin Andrews

Yes, absolutely. A couple of things that are coming out on the warrens side. We just released Last year, we released the XEON XD. It's the next generation of the XEON platform. It actually won best new product in off-road at CEMA last fall. Then right after CEMA, we introduced what would the next version of the platinum, which is the XEON XP. The XEON XP, we initially started to launch some marketing around that in December. Then we were having some issues with the actual computer module that is the brains inside of the control pack of that winch. Finally got that sorted out, and they are full-blown ramped up in building those. We are really We're going to get behind talking about XEON XP, finally, and having that really ready and available to market. That's going to be the next... It's part of the whole line of the next generation of the XEON winch line, and they are ready to go and being built like crazy in the plant in Colacomus, Oregon, right now. The XP is exactly the XEON XD, only with additional features. It's got the fastest no load line speed of any low mount winch in its class.

[00:56:04.440] - Justin Andrews

If you're like, let's say you're winching through a rock garden, as you are over driving, and sometimes you overdrive the winch to where there's slack in the line, you experience hardly any slack coming through there because the line speed is so much faster. There are actual silicone gaskets, rubber gaskets in between the motor, the ring gear, the transmission gear, and the planetary gear housings. The way that that winch comes out of the box will be that way 10 years from now. It's got automotive grave hardware. We fixed all the sun-fading problems that were happening with the early generation Xeons. I mean, it is a banger of a product. The other thing that the XP has that the XD does not is dynamic lighting. Now there's lights that are on the top of the control pack. There's drum light that lights up the winch drum. So especially for the Toyota owners, when that winch is buried in the bumper, you can't see the rope spooling up underneath the drum. Now the drum is completely active and lit up when you're using the controller. And the control pack gives you that dynamic lighting feature where when you're winching in, you'll see it going into green.

[00:57:20.880] - Justin Andrews

When you put it into free-spool, it turns purple, so it lets you know that it's in free-spool. It also has a electric clutch just like the previous platinum did. But the difference is that you can still do it electronically and manually. You have the choice to do either one. If you disengage it electronically, You can also ramp it back in and just hit the in button and also just instantly reengage the winch as well. It's going to make winching more efficient. It's going to make it much safer because it's got all the visuals that you can see. Then if you overload the winch, it will flash at you in red. It's very intuitive, and it is a phenomenal product. I can't say enough good things about this thing. There are two brand new videos that we'll be dropping on the Warren YouTube channel. We just actually got, finally, a week ago, we got through putting up our KOH documentary, essentially. We made basically a movie of our King of the Hammers experience from this last year, which was really centered around the legacy and history of Warren, Warren's involvement on the Lakebed for all the years, the product education and the educational training that we offer to not only the racers, but also to the recovery crews and people that come out to King of the Hammers, and then also talking about those new products, and then wrapping around the whole thing about Sergio and myself We actually finished fourth at King of the Hammers this year.

[00:59:03.560] - Justin Andrews

Very good. Yeah, it was a real phenomenal experience. We missed third place from our buddy John Williams by a minute and 53 seconds. Wow. Yeah. We were less than two minutes away from the podium, so I'll tell you that. Every time I've been seeing John this year, I'm like, Hey, John, what's up, man? You got a couple of minutes for me? All year long. So he isn't going to live that one down, at least until KOH next year. But That's a great video that we just got up that's doing really well. So we have two new videos about the XEON XP that we'll be launching this week. One is an install. We unbox the winch. We talk about everything that comes in the winch box. We actually install it on the front of one of our gladiators. I do that along with Chad Schroll, one of the legacy guys there at Warn. Then we have a second video. It's actually a tabletop podcast where we literally have the entire winch blown apart on top of the table. And myself, Ben, one of the engineers there, and Tom Pash, who's our Director of Product and one of the engineers at Warren as well, we go through all the individual components so you can see all the insides of everything of what we developed for the new XEON XP.

[01:00:24.660] - Justin Andrews

So both of those videos will be dropping this next week and really promoting through there. And so there's constantly... We even just released a new, there's a new Bronco bumper that we just released and also a universal fitment, like a hitch carrier mount just for the axon and side-by-side winches. There's so many things that we are working on. One of the big things that we have coming up is we are working on a full-blown Warn and Factor 55 training certification program that will an ability for customers, for municipalities, military, to actually go through an entire training and educational process for winching and recovery from Warn and Factor 55. We are really moving forward on the educational front and the best uses of our product line, and really empowering people to not only have high quality products, but knowing the tools tools of how to use them.

[01:01:31.560] - Big Rich Klein

Right, because that's one of the biggest things. We were in Australia, and we rented a Landrover that had a rooftop tent. It was a 110, and it was all set up And as we were doing a walk around to begin before we took off from when the guy dropped it off to us at the hotel, I said, Oh, it's got a worn wench on the front. Great. Where's the controller? And the guy goes, Well, we really I don't encourage. And I said, Okay, wait a second. This is who I am. This is what I do for a living. And the guy goes, Oh, well, here, let me show you where that controller is hidden. I said, Because I am taking this thing places that most people are not going to go. Yeah, 100 %. So let's make sure I know where that controller is at.

[01:02:24.780] - Justin Andrews

Well, what's so funny about that is exactly along those lines, right? I mean, I think there's so many people, I can't There's a lot of people that come up to me at these events and they're like, Yeah, Factor 55, man. Yeah, I got your stuff. Never had to use it. And I was like, Then have you actually been wheeling? If you ain't winching, man, you ain't trying hard enough. And A lot of it, it's funny about that, too, is the same thing as with even keeping the controller ready and able at the ability there, knowing where your gear is at and really understanding what that tool can be. I can't tell you enough about where I've been. We get calls from the O'ahu County Sheriff Department all the time to help vehicles that get stuck out on the O'ahu front here or even up the Ridge Road to go help to This vehicle is placed in some tow trucks just can't even get back to. I've gone out there a handful of times and just air the tires down and put the vehicle in four-wheel drive in four low and driven it out of the situation it was in.

[01:03:28.860] - Justin Andrews

It really goes to show you, I think we all know from the OE standpoint, right now, dude, the vehicles are so much more capable than the drivers. Oh, absolutely. I really think that it really gets in that thing where you're seeing the lack of sedans being sold. More people are buying trucks, more people are buying Jeeps. And look what happened when the Bronco got released, right? So the amount of people that are recreating in the backcountry and continuing, we're seeing those promotions coming from starting at the OEs all the way out to the consumer market and really driving that passion for off-road. Look what we just went through, right? Big beautiful bill and the whole thing with the potential public lands being sold. The way that the entire community rallied behind that to have that removed. I mean, that's crazy. I mean, that just happened. If it doesn't show the passion that people have for their public lands and for their rights to recreate in the backcountry like that, I mean, I think it's the biggest asset we have in off-road is education. I think that it's going to be a huge initiative moving forward for all of us.

[01:04:40.760] - Justin Andrews

I'm very excited to get that program rolled out. We just got done with... We were at the X Overland Ranch up in Montana just this last month and had a phenomenal event that they put on called The Big Thing, where we did two days of winch training out there to the people that were there. It was just an incredible experience. Once we have this complete program rolled out, I think it's going to be a huge value to a lot of people because especially for our industrial customers and things like this, DOT There are five categories within Warn. In fact, there are 55 falls within those categories as well. You have Jeep truck and aftermarket. You have our power sports division, which is huge in the OE because we OE winches to so many of those power sports companies. You've got our international business. You have all of our global distribution network in the entire international team. You have the entire OE team and all the people that are dealing with all the auto manufacturers and what we're doing to serve them. Then also you have our industrial and defense stuff. Everything that we're doing from heavy rotators and tow trucks.

[01:05:51.110] - Justin Andrews

We make winches, 30,000-pound hydraulic winches, huge large frame winches for heavy rotators and tow trucks that we build in Oregon that nobody Nobody even knows about. Also all of our military stuff that we do and those military contracts that we have. It is a huge, phenomenal experience that we have to serve in that training and education program to all of those people, and providing that out for those people that are showing up to work every day, that get into their work truck, that showed up just driving their Nissan Sedan or their Honda Civic, you know what I mean, to work, and jumped in the work truck that's a winch on the front of it, and now they'll actually have an outlet of learning how to safely and effectively use that tool.

[01:06:36.880] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. So think about this, where you've come, personally, in off-road since July of 2014 to today.

[01:06:49.280] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, it's pretty wild, man.

[01:06:51.260] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah. I want to say congratulations and good job.

[01:06:55.660] - Justin Andrews

Yeah. Thanks, man. I never thought motor sports was going to be my My passion or my lifestyle or anything, but I just really... This community is built with amazing people, and I am every day just so humbled by everyone's passion, and to work together with some of the best people in the world is just... It's literally the best thing to have that to be a career. I love every every second of it. I just love every second of it, man.

[01:07:32.880] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. What a great segue. Justin, thank you so much for joining us on Conversations with Big Rich and agreeing to do this podcast. I'm really glad we had a chance to talk like this.

[01:07:48.940] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, I am too, Rich. Thank you so much again for inviting me. I am so excited for what we get to, for some of the stuff we have coming up here and what we get to do for the future. I I mean, it is just, even with Warren, we've been in business for 77 years, and we are just getting started. The thing of what I can see, what we're going to do over the next 20 years is going to be just a phenomenal I'm going to experience, man. I cannot wait to let you guys in on some of the cool stuff we've got coming.

[01:08:20.160] - Big Rich Klein

Great. Awesome. Well, Justin, you have a great day, and I know you got to take your little girl to swim lessons. Yes, sir. Doing the whole dad thing, which is another part of being an adult. So there you go.

[01:08:37.120] - Justin Andrews

Yeah, heck yeah, man.

[01:08:38.340] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Yes, sir. You take care and thank you so much.

[01:08:42.460] - Justin Andrews

Thank you, sir.

[01:08:44.940] - 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.