Innovating From IndyCar to Rock Crawling with Jonas Burnett

This week on Conversations with Big Rich, we dive into the inventive world of fabricator and racer Jonas Burnett. From humble beginnings on a Texas ranch wrenching on a Honda Fat Cat to building engines at 16, Jonas charted a path through the School of Automotive Machinists and into AJ Foyt’s IndyCar program—handling front-end setups, meticulous wiring, and pit crew duties. After seven intense years in pro racing, he returned home to launch Black Smoke Garage, where his imagination meets metal across hot rods, off-road rigs, mini boats, and more.

Highlights of the show include the IndyCar years and life on the road; the one-man, high-craft Black Smoke Garage; and ground-up restorations.  Where he’s headed includes compact transfer cases with front/rear clutches and innovation.  Jonas’ philosophy includes safety-first, practical performance, and making pro-grade tech more accessible. 

Transcript

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[00:00:05.120] 

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 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.

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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.

[00:01:12.910] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week is an automotive business owner. He has experience in Indy car racing, building hot rods off road, even restoring one of Brad Lovell's Ford Rangers, competing in rock crawls and innovating products for competition. My guest is Jonas Burnett. Hey, Jonas, good to have you on the podcast.

[00:01:36.820] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, sir. Thanks for having me today.

[00:01:39.140] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I think this is going to be fun. Yeah. Everything that we've ever talked about, you seem to have your hands in all sorts of different directions, so.

[00:01:48.420] - Jonas Burnett

I do, I do. Always trying to, always trying to find the next latest, greatest fun thing to do.

[00:01:55.220] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. So let's, let's get started with the question I ask everybody first. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:03.220] - Jonas Burnett

Well, I was actually born in Bossier, Louisiana and brought over to Texas straight from the hospital and raised in East Texas and good old Carthage. And yeah, it's been great out here. Made a big loop and ended right back in Carthage. So it's, it's nice. I enjoy it.

[00:02:24.640] - Big Rich Klein

And you were, you were born in Louisiana, but were, how long were you there for before getting to Texas?

[00:02:32.240] - Jonas Burnett

Just hospital. Yeah, I was literally we were, they were living in East Texas and Carthage area and it was. Bossier was the closest hospital. So. Okay, we went over. I was born over there and brought directly into Texas. So I'm a, I'm a Texan

[00:02:52.000] - Big Rich Klein

with a little bit of, of that Louisiana Cajun.

[00:02:55.760] - Jonas Burnett

Well, yeah, because I can't get rid of the good Cajun food. I mean, that's one of my favorite foods. It's hard to beat good Cajun food.

[00:03:02.480] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So what was it like growing up in Carthage back in however many years it's been.

[00:03:10.160] - Jonas Burnett

Well, we lived on a ranch actually outside of Carthage just a little bit. And we managed kids. Our main rule was to be home before dark. They just kind of turned us loose and we had fun on the ranch. It was no cell ph, no Internets, just country kids having fun, you know, and just don't tear up anybody's property and don't get any trouble and make sure you're home before dark.

[00:03:36.620] - Big Rich Klein

And what kind of, what kind of running around, shall we say, were you guys doing?

[00:03:43.420] - Jonas Burnett

Oh, we were fishing, hunting. We got bicycles and road and we wore tires out on bicycles. And finally I remember getting my first motorized vehicle. It was a Honda fat Cat. And it literally came to me in a box. We didn't have much money growing up and I don't even know where dad found it. And he brought it home in a box and said if I could fix it, I could ride it. And I don't know, I think within the week we had it up and running. And I couldn't tell you how many miles I put on that thing. I had one neighborhood kid, he had a three wheeler and me and him just headed out and like I said, we were always fishing or trying to make our three wheelers and fat cats and what have we had a little bit better and modifying and customizing with whatever we could find laying around.

[00:04:32.960] - Big Rich Klein

Right, so you started early in that trade.

[00:04:37.760] - Jonas Burnett

I built my first motor, which was a Briggs and Stratton when I was 9 years old. Same thing. Dad had a bucket out there and he said, hey, if you can build it, you can make it run. Have fun with it, play with it. And I bet I built that motor three or four dozen times. Just it was all we had and took it apart and put it back together and then I found a bucket of weed eaters and same deal. He said, have fun with it, whatever. And I decided I could take about three or four weed eaters and got one going. And dad came out and he's like, son, where'd you get that weed eater? And I was like, well, you told me I could put it together. He's like, no, that's not the ones out of the bucket. I said, yes sir. It came out of the bucket and I was cranking on it, just about had it fired. He's like, let me tune on a little bit and tune it. And actually that was the first thing I kind of got going and realized from there I like to fix stuff.

[00:05:28.040] - Big Rich Klein

Mechanically inclined.

[00:05:30.040] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, yes, but so how. Enjoyed it a lot.

[00:05:34.600] - Big Rich Klein

How was school? Was, were you, were you close enough to be able to walk or ride or did you have.

[00:05:41.960] - Jonas Burnett

No, no, we had a hour bus ride to school.

[00:05:47.120] - Big Rich Klein

Hour bus ride?

[00:05:48.800] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah. Well, you were the, I think the third ones picked up in the morning and of course third ones dropped off at night. Oh, wow.

[00:05:56.800] - Big Rich Klein

Long day.

[00:05:58.160] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, yeah, it started out like that. And then you had chores when you got home and just good old country life.

[00:06:05.200] - Big Rich Klein

So what kind of chores were on your list?

[00:06:09.600] - Jonas Burnett

Just, I mean, of course the basic kid chores and making sure your room's picked up and all that and. But we had, I think a 4 acre yard we had to keep mowed and then we had to feed cows and rabbits and take care of all the pets and just all the, the normal ranch stuff, I guess, you know.

[00:06:27.660] - Big Rich Klein

So four acres of lawn or grass?

[00:06:31.020] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, sir, four acres of lawn. And I think our ranch was around that 250 acre range.

[00:06:36.380] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:06:36.940] - Jonas Burnett

Oh, we raised beef cattle out there, so had no idea that there's bad steaks in the world because we had a freezer full of hand grown, pure, great steaks that we ate. And anytime you want to steak, you just went freezer and got one. I thought as a kid that's what everybody had. You know, that was the one luxury we did have as kids. We never went hungry. We always had great food around there.

[00:07:02.590] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, if you're growing your own beef, you don't go hungry.

[00:07:05.950] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, sir. And my grandpa was engineer and he basically bred his own breed. And my goodness, the steaks and beef we had was amazing. Amazing. You know, and I never really knew what a filet was, but I know if you reach down the fridge in the freezer and it said filet, that was a good piece of meat. Nowadays I appreciate a filet a lot more.

[00:07:31.050] - Big Rich Klein

So then how did you mow that lawn?

[00:07:36.730] - Jonas Burnett

We had a Speedx riding mower that we upgraded to that. The seat fell off and my dad found a seat on the side of the road. And I remember as a kid there was a broomstick on the front of it and a piece of string holding the back and you had to balance the entire time while you were riding the lawnmower to keep it all mowed. But it worked. Well, not say we had no money, we didn't have any money. You know, we. But you know, we never knew it as kids. We had no idea because we always, I mean, we were happy, having fun, life was good. Money was kind of a whatever, you know, type of thing.

[00:08:10.590] - Big Rich Klein

Well, so. But As a student, were you a good student or were you. Were you one of those that was always looking out the window?

[00:08:21.230] - Jonas Burnett

Depends on what class it was. So your math and, you know, the science and basically classes where I could challenge myself with stuff and learn. I was a great student. When it came to history in English, I was not the best student. I mean, of course you got to learn to read and write after that, whatever. In the history stuff, it should interest me more. But I'm. I think I was more curious in the future, you know, but always, I was always honor roll student and all that, you know, always had that going and top of the class and I think I was top 10 or so and just kind of, I don't know, I got bored with school. It was. It was a necessary thing we had to do. You know, every.

[00:09:13.600] - Big Rich Klein

Everything you just described doesn't surprise me at all. Knowing you and knowing your. What you've done. It doesn't surprise me. Math, sciences, you know, the honor roll, fixing stuff, creating, you know, creating something out of a box of parts that is. That is so Jonas. Okay.

[00:09:39.650] - Jonas Burnett

Yep, yep. Oh, always like, just I say, seeing new stuff, learning technology. Technology always interests me majorly. Ever since I was a kid and still to today.

[00:09:51.490] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so when you, as you were growing older and going to school and living on the. The farm and, or the ranch and, you know, doing all your chores and all that kind of stuff, when. When did you become distracted outside of hanging out with the boys?

[00:10:15.630] - Jonas Burnett

When I got my first truck.

[00:10:17.470] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:10:18.910] - Jonas Burnett

And it just. It was time to start playing and modifying. And it was, I remember, still remember old truck, it was 86F150 Ford. And first thing is you do a drop kit and wheels and tires, you know. And I was working part time and saving everything I could to buy the parts. And as soon as I did that, I realized it didn't have enough power. So I took my first loan out in my life to build a motor for the pickup. There was nothing wrong with the motor. It was in it. I just wanted more power, right? And man, I think I studied for six months trying to decide what I wanted, what cams to run, run, what heads to run. And finally had a game plan together and got my money together, went to the machine shop and I think I was 16 at the time. And sat down with machinist Gary Stubbs. Still remembered God day, great guy. And sat in his office and man, I started telling him everything I wanted in this motor and how I wanted it done and this and that. And he just had this real blank stare.

[00:11:25.410] - Jonas Burnett

And after I got all done, he just kind of looked at me. He's like, did, did you read this somewhere? Where'd you come up with this? I said, I've been studying on it. He said, do you want to go to work? I said, well, I already have a part time job. He said, you know all your cams and their degrees and everything that's going on with them and how did you learn all this? I said, man, I just enjoy it. It's all I do. You know, I read on it. And back then you didn't have the Internet, you found books, you know you're reading on everything. But yeah, I knew it then and there. I was kind of suckered in all this. And here I am today still designing motors and suspensions and everything else.

[00:12:03.080] - Big Rich Klein

So that first job, that part time job you had, what were you doing?

[00:12:08.600] - Jonas Burnett

It was actually a combination. I would check wells for my dad. He was oil field and then I was also working at a parts store. Matter of fact, the same. I was checking wells when I originally started it. But the parts store that was doing my machine work actually asked me to come to work there and started working there.

[00:12:26.570] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:12:27.930] - Jonas Burnett

But I would get done with school and go to work parts and did that. And I think, well, wait a minute, back up here. Did I do part store or body shop first? I can't remember. It's been too long ago. I was basically mechanic at body shop for a while too. Doing all the body shop stuff.

[00:12:49.210] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so. So learning to, to, to move metal.

[00:12:53.280] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, exactly.

[00:12:54.720] - Big Rich Klein

Nice, nice. So then you said that you read a lot of books and that's how you, you know, learned about engine building and stuff. Where did you find those books?

[00:13:08.720] - Jonas Burnett

You know, my dad actually come up with a lot of those for me. That's been so many years ago. I don't know. I just had them. I think we dad found somewhere he was getting me all these books where I could read them and see what was going on.

[00:13:24.150] - Big Rich Klein

So he knew early on.

[00:13:26.230] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, a lot of it was Hot Rod magazine. You know, that was the. Everybody loved Hot Rod magazine and every magazine I could find that had anything to do with street rods or off road rigs or anything. I remember going to the grocery store with mom and it's like, hey, can I get a magazine? A lot of it came from magazine reading. Nice.

[00:13:45.680] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:13:46.200] - Jonas Burnett

Yep.

[00:13:47.120] - Big Rich Klein

And did you ever work for that guy with the, the engine builder?

[00:13:52.720] - Jonas Burnett

I worked up front, so I, I did all the parts up front. It was machine shop in the back And I never actually went to work there. From there it kind of went in college and machinist school stuff. Okay, so I. There's another odd story in itself. I was getting done with high school and getting ready machinist school. And it was more tool and die style. Machinist and Johnny Cleveland Hagen come up to me when I was back up a little bit. I think I was 13 or 14 years old. He come up to me and needed a four wheeler fix because I was doing four wheeler work on the side as a kid, just playing around, having fun. And he was having a big family meeting here and four wheeler was down and I still remember he brought it over and I found a wire that was loose and put it back together and I think I charged him $5, you know, as a kid. Five bucks. Yeah, we're great, you know. And fast forward back to ending high school, getting ready to go machinist school. He came to me and asked me what I was doing and I told him I'm, you know, I'm going machinist schools for tool and dying this and that.

[00:15:05.400] - Jonas Burnett

He said, well, when you get done, I want you to go to school of automotive machinists. And got a spot waiting for you, you just let me know, okay. So did my tool and die work and then end up going to school of automotive machinist down in Houston. What I didn't know at the time is Johnny Clevenhagen was a sheriff over Harris county, which is Houston, and A.J. fort's business partner. Business partner and friend. And what he was doing is seeing if I was actually going to do anything in school or if I was just kind of hanging out. And of course me having a passion for all this. I was not only in school during my hours, but at night when they were doing other stuff, they let me hang out, hang around and play around in the shop. And so I started designing, building motors then. And I don't know how far you want me to go into all this.

[00:16:00.460] - Big Rich Klein

Go into it, man.

[00:16:02.740] - Jonas Burnett

I remember I was in machinist school, the automotive machine at school. And we were building performance v8 stuff. And I was designing once again, a lot of my designs come because we didn't have money growing up, you know, and we didn't have anything. And I started, I wanted to build a motor and I found a little 351 Windsor. And they were cool little motors, but I wanted to go to the next level with it. So I started doing research and reading books again. And at this point I got better books Because I was in school and there was school books, you know, you could get all the specs on every engine, everything out there. So I realized the 351 Windsor, the 400 modified rod, was the same diameter on the crank journal. So we could put a long rod in to get our rod to stroke ratios a whole lot better in it. And then I realized the 312 Ford. I could put the bushing in the little end of the rod and take a 6 inch rotted Chevrolet 383 piston and put on top if I knocked the balance pad off and made clearance.

[00:17:02.660] - Jonas Burnett

So I started putting all this together. Well, I got in there and the rods were. I still remember some weird reason or 48,000ths too wide to fit into the crank journal. So I went into the. They had old Bridgeport milling machine. And I started fly cutting these rods. And the instructor come in there and he just like, whoa, stop, stop, stop. And I was like, yes, sir. He's like, what are you doing? And I explained to him what I was doing. And this Bridgeport doesn't look like it ever been used. Well, engine machinist and automotive or tool and die machinists are two totally different guys. And nobody really ran the Bridgeport down there. And when I told him what I was doing, it was making all this rack, he said, hold on just a second. He said, class, everybody come in here. Y' all need to see this. And he brought the entire class in to watch me modify these rods to make everything fit, you know. So, yeah, I've been cutting and modifying for a long time, and everything worked out great. And that motor lasted, man. Matter of fact, I found it year before last.

[00:18:03.330] - Jonas Burnett

A guy had finally blown that motor up. And this was. I put it together in 99, I think is when I finally got that one together. And it made all these years. And I. I had to get a hold of the guy because I found him on Facebook Marketplace. I'm like, how did you blow the motor up? Oh, man, I was just doing a burnout. So did you raise rpm? Well, yeah. I said, you killing. You can't. I said, the way it was designed, anything past 7,400, the piston would hit the heads and it explode. He's like, I turned it up to 78. I was like, there you go. Oh, yep. That was a real neat. Real neat time. No.

[00:18:40.510] - Big Rich Klein

So then. But explain more about the whole thing with AJ Foyt's okay partner there. And. And what happened with that?

[00:18:50.070] - Jonas Burnett

So everything I do has some kind of odd story with it. And that's way. I've accepted life pretty much the way it works for me. So as I was going to school, Mr. Cliffenhagen actually got a brain tumor and cancer and died six weeks before I finished school. Well, he had already told AJ about me, but I didn't know about it. You know, basically, AJ Was going to hire me through Cleveland Hagen. But when he died and passed, everything happened, and I didn't know and he didn't know. And I graduated school, went to work at Southside Performance Machine Shop building Race Motors. And the owner there told me, he's like, hey, we want. Somebody's going to be here for a long time. This. And I said yesterday, I plan on being here. It's what I love doing. I said, the only reason I may leave is if A.J. foy calls me and wants me to go to work. He just kind of laughed at me and said, come on, son, let's get to work.

[00:19:43.720] - Big Rich Klein

So you're just blowing smoke?

[00:19:45.880] - Jonas Burnett

Oh, yeah, yeah. I worked there for about two months, and, man, great people. I mean, great place. I was enjoying life. Life was great. And it was four. Cell phones were big and all that. And he come out in the shop one day and said, jonas, you got a phone call. All right? I walked in there, give him a phone call, come back out. I said, see it and need to talk to you. He said, no. He said, okay, what you got? I said, well, that phone call, he looked at me, he said, that was A.J. floyd, wasn't it? He said, yes, sir, it was. And I said, I hate to tell you, but I'm gonna have to give you my two weeks notice, you know? He said, no, no, no, you're not doing that. I said, what do you mean? He said, you told me the day you started, if A.J. floyd calls, you're going to work for him. He said, get out of here and go have fun. He said, you know, he said, you told me everything's good. He said, if you ever want a job, you got one waiting on you.

[00:20:41.480] - Jonas Burnett

Just great group of guys. And from there, I went out to AJ Foits and started building Indy cars for a living. No. Holy. But, yeah, I'm telling you, everything in my life has some odd story to go with it.

[00:20:54.520] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about that first day at AJ Foyt's shop.

[00:20:59.240] - Jonas Burnett

Overwhelming. No, just. I mean, kid in the candy store. It's what I'd always dreamed of, you know, and it was just amazing, the technology to me. And my goodness, they had just built a new shop, and it Was huge. And semi trucks were parked indoors and all epoxy floors. And this was in 98. So it was just a whole new world, you know, and you go to the racetrack and everybody's looking at you. And I walked in. I remember walking in first day, and I'm like, hey, introduce myself. I'm like, so what? What do I do? You know? And there's. They looked at me and they said, well, you got long, skinny arms. I was like, yeah. He's like, we're gonna put you on the front end of the car. I was like, okay. Well, I didn't understand is you can't see the inside of the front of these things. You literally put your arms through these little bitty holes and you work on it blindside. I was like, oh, now I know I'm on the front end of the car. But I ended up going in and doing setups and basically, you know, mechan and everybody helped everybody from changing motors to.

[00:22:09.120] - Jonas Burnett

I was. Did a lot of creature comforts, you know, making sure drivers were happy, and ended up doing a ton of the wiring on the cars. Got to where I was real meticulous with my wiring and way everything ran. And actually later on end up getting hired because one of the teams had seen my wiring in another car, you know. But it was just a major learning curve out there, you know, Go from, you know, building Honda fat cats on a ranch with whatever's laying around. All of a sudden you have every tool you can imagine at your disposal, you know?

[00:22:40.060] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:22:40.380] - Jonas Burnett

But it was. It was just the neatest thing in the world to me, you know? And from there, they're like, you ever changed a tire? I'm like, yeah. You ever change tire on any car? Like, no. Oh. And. And up. I was a left front tire changer and pit crew on the Indy car stuff, you know, so. Wow. Yeah, it just kept snowballing, and it just. It was quite the ride, you know.

[00:23:06.110] - Big Rich Klein

But how long did that last?

[00:23:10.670] - Jonas Burnett

I was with foight for, I think, right at three years. And then I ended up moving to Indianapolis. Teams up there kept on wanting more and more, and I remember a friend of mine that was a little smarter than I was, basically said, go to Indy. You can't mess it up. Said, you're too young. Life's, you know, way long. You got a lot to go. Go up there, you will love it. And end up going to Indianapolis and working for Cheever and Menard and a few of the guys up there just have an absolute blast up there building Indy Cars. That's incredible. Yeah, I think I did it overall. Seven years and it'll weigh on you. I mean, it's 365 days a year. There is no off season. And you know, I. I am. Well, when it comes in the heart, I'm a redneck, you know, country boy down here. So I did about seven years of it and decided it was time to move back home and do something a little different. And I was still, I was flying in, doing a little different series. It's a Mazda Star series, flying crew chief. And we won eight out of 12 races that year and one championship.

[00:24:25.640] - Jonas Burnett

And I said, you know what, that's a pretty good retirement. I thought I retired up until last year and I'm back in it, doing it again.

[00:24:35.160] - Big Rich Klein

So during your retirement, what did you do?

[00:24:38.760] - Jonas Burnett

I actually went to oilfield, went back oil field and I was, I was running so the king of the Hammers and ultra four and dirt ride inside besides and having a blast doing that and realizing how quick you go broke doing all that stuff. But yeah, me and you, you know, you're putting on series. I was running with you out there, right, and did that for a few years, but kind of started focusing. I bought my place here and started focusing on just building stuff in the evenings. And man, I was working all day in oilfield and coming home and just designing and building. And once again, we didn't have a bunch of money. We were just doing poor mud trucks and rock buggies and basically used whatever we had laying around. And man, we were working two or three in the morning every night. And it helped me not only further my progression, but also pay bills, you know, to the point where I could kind of get ahead a little bit and start paying houses off and getting all my stuff paid for and get out of the oil field basically, you know.

[00:25:47.390] - Big Rich Klein

So. So is that when you started Black Smoke?

[00:25:50.990] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, I mean, oil field was really good to me. Can't say anything bad, but the position I was at, I was getting ready to retire in and. And they kind of did a corporate change and went real corporate. And I wasn't real happy with everything going on. And I don't think anybody was there at the time. And one day I kind of looked and I had kind of put a little bit back here and there. And I told my wife, I said, you know, I think I'm going full time. She's like, what? I said, I think I'm gonna build me a new shop and I'm just gonna go full time and do this For a living. I said, I've been doing it all these years on the side and might as well do it for a living. And I end up building this shop over here that I have now. And I was in my old shop the way Black Smoke Garage actually came around. I was in my old shop, I got my little 53 yard built and I was tuning it and man, the whole shop was smoky and all that. My dad walked in and he's like, hey, Black Smoke Garage.

[00:26:46.910] - Jonas Burnett

And I was like, you know what? There it is. There's the name we're looking for. Oh. But now my new shop, I love it. It's air conditioned, heated and epoxy floors and coffee room and office and it's just, it's a blessing, you know, it's been great, you know.

[00:27:05.660] - Big Rich Klein

Do you have a crew or is it just you?

[00:27:09.100] - Jonas Burnett

It's just me. I don't know. I kind of, I call it semi retired life, but honestly it just, my wife's a nurse and we actually like each other and hang out and her schedule is kind of odd. So me being just me, I can kind of do my own hours out here. Right. And I don't know, it may end up later on getting more of a crew, but right now it's just kind of a one man shop. Okay.

[00:27:36.650] - Big Rich Klein

And, and let's talk about some of the builds you have or done and, and the kind of cars that you've, you've created.

[00:27:46.490] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place out here. My passion of course is the rock crawling, the buggies, you know, just off road world. But I, I'm so big in the street rod world too. I love it. You know, we even got into building mini boats. We, you know, we're a little bit of everything. Basically. If you need your brakes changed and need your oil leak fixed, I'm not your guy. But if you want something cut up, make something cool out of it then. Absolutely. You know, and I think, man, once you start rock crawling, you really don't get away from it. It, you know, and every time I sell a buggy thinking, ah, we're going to take a little break, it's just. Nope. We're actually building a new one. We're designing something new, you know. And all that being said, My little 53 model pickup is probably the flagship of this place.

[00:28:35.930] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:28:37.050] - Jonas Burnett

It was a I like the rat rod look because you didn't worry about scratches and dings and you have fun. But man, everyone on my saw was excited when they made a 10 mile run, you know, I'm like, no, I want something I can drive across the United States and be comfortable in. So I did the little rat rod set up. And that one actually has a story in it too.

[00:29:01.740] - Big Rich Klein

Let's hear it.

[00:29:03.500] - Jonas Burnett

So I was building on it. Everything was going pretty good. And my wife at the time, I am divorced and she's fine, but she got cancer. And it was time to adult in life. And basically the truck had all the goodies, all the good parts you could put in it. So we sold everything out of it to help pay for all the cancer treatments and everything. And I said, I'll sell everything out of it, but I'm not selling the chassis. I'm not selling my truck. You know, I got to keep it. So it went in storage, and we got her through chemo. She was better and all that. And she got to where she didn't like small town life, wanted to move to Houston. And I'm not about living in big town. So it was kind of a mutual separation, you know, and everything was good. There wasn't anything bad, Nobody did anything wrong. But it was one of those deals that I was broke from everything and life was terrible and blah, blah, blah. And then one day I went, no, no, let's not get down on life. Let's figure out how to fix it, you know.

[00:30:03.450] - Jonas Burnett

And I went and got my old pickup, you know, my old 53. And it's just a rolling tube chassis at this point. I said, well, I gotta get this thing running, but I don't have any money. And I originally set it up around LS motor and called my buddy up and said, hey, man, I need a motor. He said, me? I was like, what do you have? I just need something to put in this truck. I needed to go down the highway. He said, I got a Cummins. I said, man, I want the Cummins. That's terrible, you know, why would I do that? He said, you still got the old Envy 4500 trans behind the shop? I was like, yeah, it's still back there. He said, I'll trade you this Cummins for a transmission. I was like, you know what? We got a deal. Let's do it. And once again, blessing in disguise. We put it in there and got the truck up and going, and, man, everything was great. And my dad had just retired and I was over at his house. He said, your truck running? I was like, yeah, yeah, you know, I think I had two, three thousand miles on in time, you know.

[00:31:00.590] - Jonas Burnett

I was like, yeah, it's good he's like, well, he said, I'm retired. And he said, I got a little money. And what do you think about that hot rod power tour we've always been wanting to do? I was like, man, I'm broke, but I got a little vacation. Let's do it. So me and him actually did power tour for the first time in 2016 in that pickup, you know, and it was rough. I mean, the truck had no interior. It was bare bones. Just. Yeah, I remember it rained one night, and we went out to the truck next morning and the cab was full of water. It was like, huh. I guess it rain inside too. But from there, the truck's been refined and it's full interior. Of course, life's gotten better. And we built new motors, and I think we're doing 90 pounds of boost through the thing. And literally drove it to Maine last year. You know, got, I think 78,000 miles on that truck now. Wow. It's kind of been the iconic black smoke garage ride. You know, we've done a bunch of power tours and long hauls and. And actually putting on my first black smoke tour this year.

[00:32:10.590] - Jonas Burnett

We got a little small group of us heading up to Spearfish, South Dakota, and a bunch of old street rods. It's. It's really good time. You know, my wife, we built a new Gladiator on 14 bolts in Atlas case and literally had 2,000 miles. And we cut this thing up and bobbed the bed and spent way too much money on it. And this thing is just. I mean, it's comfortable, it's luxury. I mean, it's nice. And we're getting ready to go dinner the other night. And I told the wife, I said, you want to take the Jeep or what do you want to take? You know, we got a couple other daily drivers and everything. She's like, I want to take the 53. I said, really? Over the. Over the super nice Jeep? She said, don't ever ask me that question. She said, The 53 is what I always want to take. Anywhere we go, anytime we go. That's my favorite ride. I was like, okay, that'll work.

[00:32:57.370] - Big Rich Klein

It's definitely a head turner.

[00:32:59.450] - Jonas Burnett

It is, it is. So it's great. From just cruising 80 down the interstate, watching people look at you doing quarter mile burnouts in the thing, you know, it's just. It's a good time.

[00:33:10.470] - Big Rich Klein

So how many times have you been pulled over by law enforcement just so that they can make sure the thing? Because, I mean, when I look at it, it's like, you know, how legal is it?

[00:33:22.790] - Jonas Burnett

Well, it goes back to racing on that the, you know, the black and white rules won't win you anything. You got to find the gray areas. That's where you win races. So the 53 is in a major gray area. I love it. Yeah, yeah. But honestly, all the cops have been super cool with it. Oh, everybody's just. They wave at you and smile real big and really don't have a whole lot of issues, you know. No, they more want to look at it just to see what it is. And it's pretty legal, most apart. Legal. I mean. Yeah, it's kind of legal. All right.

[00:34:03.150] - Big Rich Klein

It's got all the lights and all the. All the safety equipment, right?

[00:34:06.990] - Jonas Burnett

Absolutely. Yep. And that is one thing that I kind of. I don't know. It's my oddball thing. I'm a safety guy. I'm not one that's going to, you know, overly do nitpick safety. But I believe in the solid, you know, core safety items you got to have. And that was one of the deal on the rat rods. Most of them to me are not real safe.

[00:34:27.630] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:34:27.950] - Jonas Burnett

And I wanted mine. I mean, everything's proper on it where even your bolts are captured and lock nuts on everything. And you know, you got a full cage in it. And yeah, it's full five point harnesses. All the safety features are there. You know, that way you got something old school, but you're not going to die if you crash it.

[00:34:48.980] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:34:49.860] - Jonas Burnett

You know.

[00:34:52.740] - Big Rich Klein

And so what kind of front end is on that thing?

[00:34:57.780] - Jonas Burnett

Suspension, axle wise? Yeah, it's. It's actually the original 53 model I beam that I built a rocker suspension to. So it's got a triangulated 4 link and actually has a push rod that goes into a rocker on the chassis that's got bearings in it and seals and it's double captured for safety and all that stuff that goes into your coilover. And we were having a lot of issues keeping wheel bearings on the front of it. And something about those 150, 160 mile an hour hits on the and you know, 53 model wheel bearing design, just, they didn't like them. So got with Wilwood and talked to Miguel at Willwood, said, hey, do y', all, you know, offer a brake kit for this thing? You know, I said, what can we do to get brakes on? He said, well, I can't give you anything. So. No, no, no, I ain't looking for anything free. I just need something bigger. Brakes and bearings. You know, we do 150 mile an hour hit and we lose brakes about 40, you know, it just overheats them when we're trying to stop it. Kit. He said, we got a C10 big brake kit that runs unit bearing.

[00:36:00.770] - Jonas Burnett

So that's great. Send it to me. I said, but I don't want the spindles. He said, what do you mean you don't want the spindles? I said, well, spindles won't bolt to my I beam axle and y' all don't have anything, so I'll just build my own spindles. I said, what do you mean you build your own spindles? I was like, yeah, I'll figure it out. We'll build some spindles and make it all work. He said, man, you never had anybody ask for that, but sure, I'll send you the parts. And I got the parts. And a couple weeks later, sending pictures of this fabricated spindle I designed to go on the I beam with his unit bearing and all his brake stuff, he's like, man, that's cool right there. He said, can you bring that thing to Lone Star throwdown? I said, man, my truck doesn't fit in at Lone Star throw down. Man, that's a high end, really nice, classy trucks. Mine's just old beater daily driver, you know. He's like, no, no, I want it in my booth. I was like, okay, cool. I said, well, while we're on the phone, I'm having issues with this new gladiator built.

[00:36:52.140] - Jonas Burnett

The brakes are squealing real bad. And he said, well, send me some pictures of it. I send pictures of it and it's. It's spider tracks, knuckles on crane, 14 bolt that. I adapted a spider tracks hat with wilwood rotors and built my own brake mounts and just all kinds of oddball stuff. I call it kind of redneck meats refined with a 14 bolt and spider tracks, you know, but send him pictures of it. He's like, whose jeep is that? I said, that's mine. He's like, can you bring that to the show too? I was like, it doesn't fit in, but sure. So it was pretty neat having. I was actually in Wilwood booth with all the Wilwood brakes and everything and that little 53. Out of all the high class stuff at the shows, even the Wilwood reps, like, man, your truck is getting more attention than all these high class show cars. I was like, what? Oh, and it did. And oh, it was neat, man. The whole time there's big crowd around. Of course you got people that are complete show car people. That were like. But they still had to look at it, you know.

[00:37:50.540] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[00:37:52.330] - Jonas Burnett

It's just one of those. And it was actually indoors too. It wasn't even outside. It was indoors. In a nice deal, they're unloading their cars out of the trailers onto the concrete because they didn't want to get tires dirty. And I drove mine in and wiped the bugs off of it where we'd driven it up there, you know, and you've seen it. That truck's been out. We rock events and just all over the place. We drive it everywhere.

[00:38:14.090] - Big Rich Klein

I love that thing. It is.

[00:38:15.770] - Jonas Burnett

Oh, it's so much fun. And it's actually plush inside for me and wife. I mean, it doesn't fit everybody, but it's air conditioned and heat and power windows and been averaging 26, 27 miles a gallon out of it.

[00:38:27.150] - Big Rich Klein

Holy mackerel.

[00:38:29.070] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah. And we actually got the thing to wag the rear end at 160 the other night, you know, while we were down in Mexico on, you know, private roads.

[00:38:41.790] - Big Rich Klein

That's crazy. That's crazy.

[00:38:44.190] - Jonas Burnett

Yep. Yeah.

[00:38:45.870] - Big Rich Klein

Talk about Brad Lovell's Ranger.

[00:38:49.900] - Jonas Burnett

Man, that was a magazine thing when I was a kid, you know, I said, kid, I was young. I remember when it first come out in magazines and I just like, man, that's the neatest thing ever. That was my idea. I always wanted it. And one day I happened to find it. A buddy of mine had it and he had torn it down a bear chassis. And it was rough and I had a. I think I had side beside at the time. And he was looking for a side beside and he said, man, you give me your side beside. And I forget exactly the deal we worked out, but we kind of worked out a trade on it. He had this thing. I was like, okay. He said, it's in pieces. I was like, perfect, that's great. So I went down there and when he said pieces, I was like, oh, this is literally completely. It was a, you know, put it in the bed of the truck. Not roll it onto a trailer, put it in the bed of the truck, let's go home type of thing. And brought it home and started going through it and basically just did a ground up on it.

[00:39:48.290] - Jonas Burnett

I wanted to bring it back to life and kind of keep it the original old school because it was such a neat rig, you know, and probably shouldn't have sold it. But it was one of those that after I got it all built and everything, it was almost too pretty that every time you put a little scratch on it, you were Back home, repainting panels and cleaning everything up just because it was so neat, you know, I'd even rewired it and. Oh, man. Gone through all the axles and suspension and kind of just started fresh on the thing, you know. But it also had started doing a little we rock competition. And we got on podium several times and it was probably the one of the oldest rigs in the field, you know, but it did great. We got second at nationals with it and decided it was time to build a portal rear steer buggy. And. Yeah, we're still working on that. Yeah, it's. The new buggy has all kinds of off the wall stuff. It's probably. It's the 53 equivalent of a rock buggy at this point in time.

[00:40:51.600] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:40:52.200] - Jonas Burnett

You know, we're experimenting with new motors and actually designing new transfer case right now. And I came out with my slipper clutch that we tested last weekend at We Rock. That did awesome. It's kind of the big thing out right now. Everybody's getting into the slippers. And it basically is a clutch that goes between your transfer case and your drive shaft. And you can operate it through a handbrake and basically engage and disengage your clutch to the rear end. Instead of now having to pull a shifter to do a front dig, you just pull a lever. And it's not only just that, but you can apply a percentage of power through this clutch to basically keep the back tires loaded, but not actually turning. So if you're trying to go up a ledge and you need just a little bit of pressure on the front tires, you can do a little bit, you can do a lot or you can do none, all through the pull of a lever. And I think Lee, I had it. Lee holes buggy during we Rock at Katempse this past weekend. And he did a prime example right in front of everybody.

[00:41:57.970] - Jonas Burnett

Started going up a ledge, left front tire goes way in the air. He stops, he pulls the slipper clutch, the buggy settles itself. Because you take all the torque, twist and everything out of the chassis, the buggy settles, tire sets back down, and he's able to drive off without ever changing his line or changing anything.

[00:42:17.410] - Big Rich Klein

Who built Lee's buggy?

[00:42:22.130] - Jonas Burnett

Lee actually built it himself. It started. It started out as a Jesse Haynes buggy and has Jesse's axles under it. And he. He's hard on equipment. Very good driver, very talented, but he's rough on equipment. He actually ripped the whole lower chassis out of the thing where all the link bars go in and Decided he was going to rebuild everything himself. And he cut that thing, all kinds of pieces. I was like, what is this guy doing? This is terrible. This is a Jesse Haynes chassis. These things are great. You know, I gotta say, when he was done with it, it's pretty neat looking car. It's a Jesse car, but it's just modified enough. Something's different about it, you know. But he's, he's just, he's a great guy to test stuff. And I was actually trying to figure this clutch situation out. And I was looking for some kind of clutch because Sedev makes a drive. But once again, I don't have the money to spend on Sedev, so I was trying to make something a little cheaper, you know, that would do the same thing and that we could work on. And that's a lot more basic, I guess, you know.

[00:43:25.980] - Jonas Burnett

So I'm trying to figure it out. And Lee owns a big semi truck repair shop. And it's beautiful shop. It's epoxy floors. I forget how many rigs you can fit inside of it. Some like 18 semis or something. And just a very impressive place, you know, over his place. And I said, lee, you got any PTO clutches? He's like, what are you talking about? I was like, man, I'm trying to design this thing, blah, blah. He's like, here, you can look at them, but that ain't never gonna work, you know. I was like, yeah, well, okay. So the PTO clutch didn't work, but I did find some stuff that does work. And I was over at the house and I was building this for myself. And he come over here in shop and he was looking at everything. He said, I want one. If, you know Lee, you know, he's pretty cut and dry, you know. I said, what do you mean you want one? He said, build me one. So I was just kind of building it for my car. He said, no, build me one. I want one. Okay. So me and him went through a ton of different scenarios and.

[00:44:20.340] - Jonas Burnett

And got it kind of close. We got one in. He's got some. Another car going on. We got one in it, but just wasn't overly happy. I need it shorter, but I couldn't get custom shafts or anything and I could get them. I just, I was terrible at drawing. And I'm learning. This is all recent. I'm learning all this. So since then I've learned to draw, got everything going. But I also learned to cut splines. I said, you know what I can learn? I can spline this shaft. I Can build my own shaft. So I actually got everything got set up and started splinting my own shafts and built this super short compact slipper clutch. And I was like, here you go, Lee. He took it home and in one evening had it bolted in the car and was driving around. So it's a very, it's unique but simple design. And he's like, man, everything works great. And I went to We Rock this weekend and literally that's the first time I'd seen the clutch in the car. I was like, oh yeah, this looks neat in here. And he'd beat on it down in Katempsey for four days solid with zero issues.

[00:45:22.870] - Jonas Burnett

And now we're just waiting to get it torn out of that car and inspect and we're actually going to start selling them. So.

[00:45:30.550] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome.

[00:45:31.070] - Jonas Burnett

It never changes around here. Always something different, you know, I guess I say it never changes, everything changes, but it's always something different, you know?

[00:45:41.430] - Big Rich Klein

Right. No, the, the. I asked about who built the car because what I noticed is looking at the photos, there was a lot of torque lift. Every photo that I saw that car from the weekend, it, you know, it was waving a tire at everybody and I didn't know is that it was that suspension or, you know, I typically, you know, when you see something like that happen all the time, you wonder, you know, if, if there's. If the setup is right. But that slipper clutch, making it subtle. Hell, it doesn't really matter, does it?

[00:46:19.490] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, it kind of takes it out of it. And we're actually looking at doing some front clutches as well. A lot of these cars are overdriven. You know, basically you run different gear ratios, front and rear to make the front turn faster and keep the car settled, which helps that everything, you know. But with a front clutch, we're kind of wondering, do you even overdrive the cars or do you just run the clutches? You know, even with the rear clutch, it seems like it kind of gets rid of the over the need for the overdrive and there'll still be people that claim you gotta have it. And I, I'm building new car and I'm going with no overdrive. You know, originally I was doing overdrive and with the clutch set up like you say, when it, it just kind of settles the car out and seems to keep the car happy, you know, Nice.

[00:47:05.900] - Big Rich Klein

Are there any slipper clutch setups out there in at We Rock or at the Rock?

[00:47:12.730] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, there are. Sedev is actually one of the first ones that was kind of adapted over their company out of France. And we actually run Sedev in our race cars. So they have gearboxes and they, they have their style. It was originally designed for the rally car guys to be able to kick the car into a drift and lock the axle back in. And it's kind of drifted over into the rock buggy world. And great setup. There's nothing wrong with it except for the fact that they are extremely expensive and I don't know of a whole lot of people that can work on them if they have issues. Oh, it's a very intricate setup that they have. It's a wet clutch setup and it's neat. There's nothing wrong with it. But I think this dry clutch is one, it's about half the price. Wow. And two, it's easily serviceable, easily repairable if something goes wrong. You know, you spend a whole lot of time just to make something extremely simple. You know, that's kind of how I wanted to make it to where that you don't have to send the thing back to France or something weird.

[00:48:22.610] - Jonas Burnett

If it breaks, you can actually fix it in your home garage, you know, or you can fix these on the trail if you had to. They're really, you know, simple to work on.

[00:48:30.990] - Big Rich Klein

Pretty cool.

[00:48:31.950] - Jonas Burnett

We hope we don't have any, you know, any problems, but it's metal and we're rock crawlers, so pretty much we can break it, you know.

[00:48:38.990] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So when do you think your rear steer Porter car will be ready?

[00:48:46.350] - Jonas Burnett

I have a major project that I'm trying to wrap up right now. It's 1948 model Dodge Power Wagon that I'm redoing for a customer. And as soon as it's done, I got a customer's Holsey portal car to build. And the plan is to try and build his car in mind at the same and hopefully by the end of the year have something.

[00:49:08.090] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:49:09.450] - Jonas Burnett

It's got a sea doo Rotex motor married to a C4 trans. And like I said, I'm designing a whole brand new transfer case for it. And it'll be. It's totally new design, one off neat thing that or I think is neat that's going on with transfer case and makes it to where it's got. I got the Holsey Comp CX chassis, which is a 48 inch tiny chassis that's kind of designed for Kirky seats to where you can put two in it. Well, I want to be more comfortable and got PRP suspension seats in it. The problem is the passenger side wouldn't come down. You Just couldn't get down low enough with transfer case. So I designed my own case that's a fraction of the size of a Dana 300. And we'll go let the seat come down on top of it and has clutches front and rear. So it's pretty neat. It's coming out. Wow. I don't know if it's anything anybody wants to buy or if I'll even sell it. But it is an extremely cool piece going in my buggy, you know and. Yeah. And then I mean a Sea Doo Rotex and a buggy sounds weird.

[00:50:11.710] - Jonas Burnett

You know, I don't know what that's going to do. But it's actually the three cylinder four stroke. They're dry sump motors all built into the pan. Really cool motors. I put one in my mini boat. Tons of Power. They're 300 horse bone stock with supercharger. But supercharger really wouldn't work for my application because they don't build boost till 5300. They're made for the water. So I got with comp turbos that are extremely good people, real good to work with. And they're. They built me a oilless air cooled turbo to go on this thing that we should be able to build boost around 2200 RPM with so real neat little setup.

[00:50:53.420] - Big Rich Klein

So all sorts of innovation.

[00:50:56.300] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, yes.

[00:50:57.820] - Big Rich Klein

And how do you come up with all these. With these ideas? Do they just in the middle of the night you wake up going oh man, that's cool.

[00:51:04.620] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, pretty much. Yep. No, just the motor idea came from when I built my mini boat. I pulled it out of a jet ski and realized that it uses antifreeze to cool. And it's just a motor. It's not really marine specific specific. It is certain areas of it, you know like the exhaust manifolds, water cooled and all that. But the motor itself was just a motor. Very tricky to get it into it because it has no bell housing. Has a PTO drive with a female spline. But I've redesigned all that and made a new rear main seal and made it to where it now has like a small block forward crank hanging off the back of it. You know which you can make any plans you want on the back at this point after I designed that piece.

[00:51:48.110] - Big Rich Klein

But so yeah, so your. Your tool. And my dad was a tool and die maker, machinist and actually ended up being. They gave him a grade of model maker or something like that. I mean but. And everything he did was bridgeport. I mean he did not want to go into. He was in the civil service working. The last job he had was working in the prosthetics lab at Oklahoma Naval Hospital in San Francisco and doing, you know, stuff for one off stuff for doctors and, and, you know, patients for their prosthesis and. And the tools that they needed to do, to build, to do this. And, you know, he retired years ago, but I always asked him, I said, you know, how come you don't go into the private sector? You know, you could make three times as much money as you're doing. Well, he was one of those guys that was just very happy being secure instead of going into the private sector and maybe, you know, not having the security. Plus, the other thing is, I don't think he wanted to learn cnc. I think he just. He felt comfortable doing everything manually.

[00:53:02.880] - Jonas Burnett

I can relate because I actually do everything manually here. Everything. All my products, machine cutting, splines, all that's all done manually. But once I come up with something like I have working now, it's not cost effective anymore, you know, one, it's actually cost effective for me because I don't have to pay a CNC shop to do one that gets very expensive.

[00:53:25.610] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:53:25.970] - Jonas Burnett

But when I start building these things, I actually got a shop I'm working with, and they'll be doing all the CNC work on it. So instead of me manually cutting each part, they'll all be CNC'd. And. And you know, we can do batches and get them out a whole lot quicker.

[00:53:38.140] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that makes. That makes sense.

[00:53:39.220] - Jonas Burnett

And cheaper, right? Yeah. So all my prototype work, I'm still manual machine here doing all the prototype once we get it dialed in. And technology has just come so far. I mean, as simple as Fusion360, we make a folder, me and my machine shop share a folder. I'm not the best drawer. I'm still learning how to do all that. And I can draw something up, and I think it looks great. Send to him. He goes, hey, man, you know, this is two different parts. I was like, what? He's like, you have to join the parts together. Then I was like, oh, okay. You know, it looked like one part to me, but sure. And he can basically grab anything he wants out of our shared folder and correct it on his end. And I can watch what and see what he's doing on his end. So technology is just amazing now, right? And I got into 3D printing. And that right there is a lifesaver. I can draw all this up and 3D print it to the point where I can print threads and parts and actually use an impact to bolt everything together and see if it's what I want, you know, I can leave certain parts out, like the transfer case I'm designing.

[00:54:47.950] - Jonas Burnett

I don't have to enclose it yet. I can leave it open and section pieces cut out of it where I can do all my measurements and make sure all my clearances are right with the visual inspection instead of just maps path. You know what I mean?

[00:54:59.900] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:55:01.180] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, it's just. It's amazing what you can do with 3D printer. And it costs little or nothing to print, you know, for the cheap stuff.

[00:55:07.580] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:55:08.620] - Jonas Burnett

I was. You get in the higher end. You know, I got a heat shield print for some Alpha Romeros and everything gets a little more expensive, but they're holding. I think they're good to 350 degrees with plastic that you can 3D print. You know, it's just neat what you can do with this stuff.

[00:55:25.310] - Big Rich Klein

You're producing heat shields for Alpha Romeros?

[00:55:30.270] - Jonas Burnett

Yes.

[00:55:30.910] - Big Rich Klein

So now there, that sounds like a big market.

[00:55:35.790] - Jonas Burnett

Well, we're just playing around with it. My Willow guy is a big Alpha Romero guy. Miguel. He's great. Super great dude. And apparently there's a heat shield that kind of deteriorates on these things. And Alpha doesn't really offer it a whole lot or if you can find it, they're crazy expensive. He asked me if I could print one. It's like, sure. So we designed it up. I put his company logo in it. We printed it, sent it to him. He put, I don't know, 500 to a thousand miles on it and went, man, it's not distorting. We have zero issues with it. Can you do me a batch of 10? It's like, sure. So we're selling these things now, you know, but yeah, and that's. I'm in a little bit of everything. So.

[00:56:19.930] - Big Rich Klein

Going and work, going to the machine shop school and learning that. That machining from the. From the tool and die maker side really has helped your career where you're at.

[00:56:34.090] - Jonas Burnett

Absolutely. It's. It's a game changer when you can take an idea and go over here and on some machines, start cutting it out and make a functioning partner, you know, I mean, I never would have thought I'd been cutting my own spline shafts to build output shafts for slipper clutches. You know, it's like, look at this. And it's usable stuff. It's great. You know, never in my wildest dreams I've, you know, thought about doing that. Now I got a double spline axle bar going in my car. And I'm like, well, do I pay somebody or do I just make that? You know, just to say I built my own axle shafts, you know, no real reason to just to do it for fun, you know.

[00:57:16.160] - Big Rich Klein

And what, what material are you using for those axle shafts?

[00:57:21.840] - Jonas Burnett

Well, like the little output shaft on the slipper, we use 4340 just it was readily available and easy. And honestly we didn't have time to heat treat before the event. So I'm real curious what it looks like. And Lee is super great. And he's like, don't worry about it. He said, it's my car, I got everything in case it breaks. We can put the old stuff. I can still compete. I was like, okay. And it didn't break. No issues. But I do want to see what it looks like, you know. But it was one of those deals. It's a non heat treated part and it was like, you know, what if it survives and then we heat treat, then we're way good to go. You know, kind of a little built in extra security on it.

[00:58:01.960] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And, and with all those pictures that I saw, you know, with that torque lift that he was getting all the time, he must have been using the hell out of that thing.

[00:58:10.890] - Jonas Burnett

He was. He said the only thing he would change is he would put a rear steer switch on the slipper clutch handle.

[00:58:17.610] - Big Rich Klein

Oh. He said you do everything with one hand, right? Without.

[00:58:20.330] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, he said my hand was on that handle more than just about anything in the car. You know, over his cutting brakes and shifters and all that. He said, man, I just keep my hand on the handle and I use it non stop. He said it was as beneficial as rear steer. He said it's crazy how much he uses it, you know. And he actually got rear tires in a bind enough out trail wheeling that it picked the entire front end of the car up off of the ground. And not one tire, but both tires. And the clutch never slipped. I was like, okay, I think, I think we got it dialed in. I think we're good.

[00:58:51.430] - Big Rich Klein

Nice, nice.

[00:58:52.870] - Jonas Burnett

And he runs a transfer case basically doublers crawl box into a 4 to 1 Dana 300. And then it's only running a 350 ring and pinion in the axle. So the gearing's not optimal. In my opinion, that car, I'd rather see it more in the axles. But you can't get better for a slipper clutch test. It's like if it'll hold all that, that puts all the stress on the clutch, we're great.

[00:59:15.330] - Big Rich Klein

Right? So sounds like that's going to be the next new product to hit the crawling scene.

[00:59:23.010] - Jonas Burnett

I think so. I. I was going to do a batch of 10 and that's kind of still the plan. But I, I think all those are already spoken for. It was literally that quick when everybody was seeing it. And if I can do it, I don't have a final price because I'm waiting on machine shop to give me their quotes. But I'm hoping to be about half the price of the Sedev. And if I can do it for that man, you know, trying to help the guys out. I'm not making a killing off of things, but, you know, I like to see people get better and do better and this seems to be a product that does it.

[00:59:55.880] - Big Rich Klein

You know, the technology that, that has come about from. From rock crawling. I don't think a lot of people really appreciate it except for those. Or even know about it, except for those that are using that technology.

[01:00:11.240] - Jonas Burnett

I completely agree. You know, and I've been fortunate to go from IndyCar racing to King of the hammers to mini boats to street rods. You don't think about it, but when you start mixing all those, you can come up with some really cool ideas. You know, like this clutch is actually an old IndyCar clutch. It's what we ran in the Indy cars back in the day, you know. Well, if I hadn't run it, you know, run the IndyCar stuff, I never would have figured out the clutch. You know, it just. It all kind of ties in together and makes where you can come up with some really neat stuff.

[01:00:48.340] - Big Rich Klein

So what's. What's on the horizon for Jonas?

[01:00:53.960] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, I got to. Right now the main focus is getting the power wagon done by June so he can go on tour with us. But I'm really enjoying this slipper clutch and new transfer case designs and I just, I don't know, it all changes. You know, I'm kind of wanting to get more into the buggy building. You know, got a couple of them lined up and I really enjoy the buggy builds. May lean more towards that and how. Depends on this manufacturing goes. May kind of play with that. This will be my first time actually manufacturing a product. I'm typically a one off guy.

[01:01:33.500] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:01:34.940] - Jonas Burnett

But I'm. I don't know, as I get older, I'm going, you know, it'd be a whole lot easier to build clutches and put them in a box and send them out than it'd be to crawl under a truck and Weld suspension under it, you know.

[01:01:45.700] - Big Rich Klein

Very true. It's nice to be working at the bench level.

[01:01:50.840] - Jonas Burnett

Yes, yes. And I'm fortunate all our stuff's paid for, so we can kind of play around with some different stuff around here and go down the alley. That makes me happy, you know, if I enjoy it, then we do it. I try not to get bogged down on stuff I don't like, you know?

[01:02:06.360] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Perfect.

[01:02:08.920] - Jonas Burnett

I call it my semi retirement.

[01:02:10.600] - Big Rich Klein

Semi retirement. There you go.

[01:02:12.200] - Jonas Burnett

Yeah, I still have to work, but I enjoy what I do.

[01:02:15.270] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Well, Jonas, I want to say thank you so much for sitting down and, and talking about your life and, and the incredible things that, that you've figured out, how to put together.

[01:02:28.550] - Jonas Burnett

Appreciate it.

[01:02:29.310] - Big Rich Klein

It's crazy. I'm not, yeah, I'm not like that at all. My skill set is completely different, and I'm just always amazed at, at guys like yourself, you know, that can take something, you know, and we've got a couple of guys like that in the industry, but you're definitely one of the one in the forefront. So.

[01:02:51.760] - Jonas Burnett

No, thank you. Thank you.

[01:02:53.360] - Big Rich Klein

People realize it yet.

[01:02:55.040] - Jonas Burnett

So I, I'm kind of behind the scenes guy, you know, I just like doing it. You know, I'm not here looking for a ton of recognition on everything. I just like doing it. But with the clutch, I kind of like, you know, let's get it out there and get it to where everybody can maybe afford to use this stuff and have some fun with it, you

[01:03:11.760] - Big Rich Klein

know, There you go.

[01:03:14.000] - Jonas Burnett

But no, I appreciate you having me. You know, this is my, this is my first one. So you got me. Yep.

[01:03:22.160] - Big Rich Klein

I, I, I broke it. So you did.

[01:03:24.720] - Jonas Burnett

You did. And plan on keeping on moving forward and see what else we can invent and come up with to have make it more fun and see if we can get a little more competitive every year on stuff.

[01:03:36.400] - Big Rich Klein

Great. Well, Jonas, take care. Have fun in the shop today, and thank you for spending the time.

[01:03:43.890] - Jonas Burnett

All right. Appreciate you having me. Have a good one.

[01:03:45.890] - Big Rich Klein

Talk to you later. Bye. Bye. All right, 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 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.