Episode 320 features Fire Captain extraordinaire Chris Mercer

Chris Mercer, a fire captain and body shop manager from Craig, Colorado, shares his journey from a Southern California native to a well-rounded off-roading enthusiast. He discusses his passion for mechanics, competitive four-wheeling, and his goals to become an off-road instructor.

Chris grew up immersed in motorsports and outdoor activities including snowmobiling, motocross, and desert racing. He worked as a computer technician after earning a degree in computer science and business management. 

Chris gives 100% in all he does and was recently named Fire Chief of his volunteer fire department, having served for 23 years. In 2010, his first year of rockcrawling competition, Chris won the Formula Toy national championship. The class emphasized driver skill over equipment; he continues to attribute his competitive success to strategic thinking and innovating problem-solving.

The Mercer family maintains 23 vehicles for different terrain needs, with a heavy emphasis on Toyotas. Chris is currently exploring becoming an off-road or recovery instructor to share decades of expertise with newer enthusiasts.

Transcript

[00:00:05.320] 

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 their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active in 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.

[00:00:46.600] 

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

[00:01:13.170] - Big Rich Klein

On this episode of Conversations with Big Rich is a guy that has spent all but 3 years of his life living in Colorado, from rural northern Colorado to the Front Range and back again. My guest is now a fire captain, operates a body shop, and wheels while enjoying the outdoors. My guest is Chris Mercer. Chris Mercer, it is so good to have you on the podcast. I'm looking forward to this. We've known each other for quite a few years, but I want to know more about you, and I know others do too. So thank you for coming on board.

[00:01:49.780] - Chris Mercer

Well, thanks, Rich, for having me, and Hopefully this will be a good time. So why don't we get started? Let me know what you, what you want to know. All right.

[00:01:57.200] - Big Rich Klein

Sounds good. So Chris, the first question I have for you is where were you born and raised?

[00:02:03.640] - Chris Mercer

So I try not to tell a lot of people this, but I was actually born in Southern California. Um, I lived there for 3 years and then, uh, my parents moved to Northwest Colorado, Craig, Colorado, where about 90 miles from Utah and 40 miles from Wyoming. It's a little town. I've been here since 1980. So other than a couple of years vacation when I was going to school in Utah, pretty much lived here in Craig pretty much the rest of my life. Wow. Okay.

[00:02:40.400] - Big Rich Klein

So those— what part of Southern California did you spend those first 3 years in?

[00:02:45.970] - Chris Mercer

Uh, I was actually in Orange County area. I was actually born in Bellflower. Okay. Uh, Huntington Beach area. Spent a lot of time down there when I was a kid. My grandparents lived down there, so spent a lot of time around the beach and stuff early on.

[00:03:01.760] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, going down to visit family, right? Okay.

[00:03:04.960] - Chris Mercer

Yep.

[00:03:05.520] - Big Rich Klein

And what, uh, precipitated the, uh, the move to Craig for your family?

[00:03:13.560] - Chris Mercer

So I don't have— I didn't have a whole lot of say in the deal. I was just kind of dragged along. Yeah. Um, so I think my— both of my parents grew up in Southern California, and they'd been down there for, for quite a few years. And I think they were just kind of tired of the big city life and wanted to try something different. And my, my dad's middle brother lived up here. We came up to visit them and They must have just, uh, really enjoyed the area and all of the stuff that was with it because it was a very short period of time after that they moved back or got back down there, packed everything up, sold the house, and moved up here. We've been up here ever since.

[00:03:55.460] - Big Rich Klein

Great. Excellent. And so growing up in Craig, it obviously is a lot different and pretty rural still. I don't think it'll ever be a huge metropolis. What was— what were your activities as a kid?

[00:04:14.250] - Chris Mercer

So, um, for those listening, just to put it in perspective, where we're at in Colorado, we're in the second biggest county in the state of Colorado. It's actually bigger than the state of Connecticut. There are 10,000 people in the entire county. So, a lot of— there's a lot of remoteness out here. A lot of wildlife out here. We have a very diverse terrains out here. We've got mountains within 15, 20 minutes of town. I have high desert within 20 miles in the other direction. A lot of farming and ranching out here. So, growing up as a kid, I did a lot of snowmobiling. I used to ride motorcycles and ATVs a lot. Did a lot of motocross racing as a kid, some desert racing. When I started— well, let me back up. I guess some of our off-roading and stuff that we did was just mostly two tracks, dirt roads, snow bashing. We get a lot of snow up here, so spent a lot of time doing that. It wasn't really until I got into high school, into college and stuff, that I kind of got into the off-road scene. But a lot of the stuff that I— again, what I was doing when I was a kid was mostly just motocross, desert racing.

[00:05:39.320] - Chris Mercer

Spent a lot of time riding out in the desert. We did a lot of camping as a kid. So I've always kind of been involved on the, um, the motor side, or the motor side of things, as far as cars and bikes and stuff like that. I've never been a a big sports fan. I'm not big on football or baseball or anything like that. So I've just always been motorsports involved and just really followed it a lot as a kid.

[00:06:07.540] - Big Rich Klein

And how were you as a student in school? Were you, were you a good student or were you one of those that, like a lot of us, that were looking out the window waiting, you know, waiting to get outside again?

[00:06:21.200] - Chris Mercer

I think that depends on who you ask. I was actually a pretty good student as a kid. I, during like through my first, well, until probably my sophomore year in high school, I was not quite a 4.0, but pretty close up there. I was a band geek, so I didn't do a lot of, a lot of sports and stuff, so it was more on the academic side. When I— actually, it had worked out really well and I was doing pretty good. And then my junior and senior year, I kind of fell off quite a bit. And actually, it was kind of surprising. A couple months before I was actually supposed to graduate, we weren't sure if it was actually going to happen. So it was kind of a good thing, but I was just kind of crawled through by the skin of my teeth on that one. It was almost not graduating on time. So And I think that's right around the time that kind of my focus has changed. And, you know, the schooling was, was good. I didn't have an issue with that so much. But yeah, you're correct. There was a lot of stuff that I was just ready to get out of school.

[00:07:27.970] - Chris Mercer

Took a little bit of time off when I got out. Found a full-time job, was working it, and decided, you know, I kind of liked having that free time of being able to spend some time in class. So went back to a community college and worked with that and then through my job part-time back and forth. And then after I actually had received my associate's degree, and then when my wife and I got together, we ended up moving to the Front Range and went to school at one of the universities down there. And things have kind of changed a little bit. And now I've moved back and not really doing any of the stuff that I went to school for.

[00:08:08.490] - Big Rich Klein

And what was that that you went to school for?

[00:08:13.720] - Chris Mercer

Well, actually, at the time, so my college was pretty much '98 to '02. So right around, you know, the turn of the century, we had a lot of the stuff with the computers and everything. So I actually have a degree in computer information systems and business management. So I was actually working at the university. I was one of their computer technicians. So I spent a lot of time diagnosing network issues and stuff like that. And then, um, I got a call one day from my parents. They, they own a body shop. They just, they called me one day and said, hey, we're taking over this business and we want you to come manage the business. So at the time, it seemed like it was a really good idea, so we put in my notice and packed up our stuff and moved back home. And I am using part of it. I mean, I do kind of take care of the computers when they're having issues, and I am managing the business. So I guess technically I am kind of doing what I went to school for, but maybe not to the extent that I had anticipated when I went into that field, right?

[00:09:18.670] - Big Rich Klein

I think a lot of us have an education and don't particularly use that education for very long after afterwards. Um, you know, my degree is in commercial photography, and after about 3 years of doing that, I stepped away from it. But the foundation of what I learned in college taught me a lot.

[00:09:47.470] - Chris Mercer

Yeah, I would agree with that. A lot of the stuff going to a college, really, college is just a business if you think about it. They want your money and they expect certain things out of you. So it's very similar to what a business does, but there was definitely some takeaways that I pulled from that as far as how to manage things and prioritizing. And yeah, there was quite a few things from it in addition to just the basic skills that you were taught as far as, you know, for example, working with the computers and programming and stuff like that. I still use some of those, just not quite to the extent that I anticipated, but Again, a lot— there's a lot of skills that we're taking that you learn while you're actually going to school, whether they actually be specific to your subject or not. But, you know, money management and time management and all of that stuff really kind of comes back into play on the day-to-day life, right? So absolutely.

[00:10:49.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I'm not going to say it was a total waste of my time, but So when you were a kid and you were growing up and you were riding snowmobiles and motorcycles and that kind of stuff, were you just mechanically inclined or was it something Dad helped you get into? Did you take any classes for, maybe not automotive, but motors and that kind of stuff?

[00:11:20.950] - Chris Mercer

So, in— again, we're in a very rural community. So, a lot of the people around here are very mechanically inclined just based on their occupation. A lot of farmers, a lot of ranchers, they're working on their own stuff.

[00:11:35.480] - Big Rich Klein

Necessity.

[00:11:36.280] - Chris Mercer

Our high school— yeah. So, our high school at the time had a very small automotive program. And that would have been my junior year, I think. So, that's kind of when things started changing as far as my focus, I think. But— Um, did a little bit, signed up for that, and spent the 2 years going through and doing basic engine rebuilds and stuff like that. Um, my dad was— is very mechanically inclined. Um, again, growing up in Southern California, he was kind of into the car racing thing, had some old Corvettes and stuff that he used to race around with. Um, a lot of time, you know, rebuilding engines and transmissions and stuff like that, and When we got into the, into the motorcycle scene, or when I got into it, I guess, a lot, we did our own maintenance on our bikes. So we would tear them down, grease everything, make sure that everything was maintained and in spec. And, you know, the engine seized, we would rebuild it. And so I had a little bit of that coming in just as far as him overseeing it and kind of pushing on it. He didn't push really hard to say, hey, you need to do this, I want you to learn this.

[00:12:50.300] - Chris Mercer

But it really just kind of came naturally, I guess, with him just having that ability and him taking that upon himself to do that. That once I got to the point where I had my own vehicles and I was working on my own stuff, that it just, it kind of became an interest on the backside. And I would say I'm not really an engine builder. I'm not an engine builder, but I don't have an issue so much tearing transmissions apart and differentials and setting up gears and stuff. I can do a lot of that and some of the fabrication stuff, which is above and beyond what he was— he's still capable of doing. But there was that draw, I guess, to it and having him there to oversee it when we were actually getting into it and tearing things apart and him imparting that knowledge on us was, was good. My brother and I are both pretty much the same way. We can pretty much not necessarily fix everything, but we're pretty good at diagnosing stuff like that.

[00:13:53.740] - Big Rich Klein

And you had mentioned meeting Tanya and, and then going to college. Was that from high school or was that later on or?

[00:14:06.570] - Chris Mercer

So yes, it was actually— we actually went to high school together. Uh, we were not in the same, same circles. We didn't really spend a lot of time talking to each other. We had a couple classes together, but she sat on that side of the room. She was too good for me. Um, so it wasn't until after, uh, she'd gone off to college in Wyoming, spent a semester up there, decided that wasn't really what she wanted to do. She came back here Uh, we started dating, had been actually dating for a couple years before we actually moved to, uh, the Front Range, to Fort Collins, go to school down there. It was just kind of a mutual thing. We were both at that point where, um, moving into the, you know, the 4-year college and everything, it just kind of fit with everything that we were doing. So, uh, but yeah, as far as the, the dating side of it, uh, that didn't actually happen until after high school.

[00:14:59.560] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, you, you mentioned she was good, too good for you. What did, what did you mean by that?

[00:15:06.060] - Chris Mercer

Well, you know, there's just sometimes that, you know, they don't want to talk to you, that— yeah, I don't know, I guess just differing opinions maybe.

[00:15:18.600] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, I get it. Yeah. And, uh, what you, you while you were there, that first job you had, what was it that you were doing?

[00:15:35.520] - Chris Mercer

When I was going to school?

[00:15:37.540] - Big Rich Klein

When you were just out of school or high school, what was your first job?

[00:15:42.180] - Chris Mercer

So my first job again, so as I said earlier, my mom and dad had actually— well, my dad was a partner in an automotive repair facility, so a body shop, and he had been there. That was kind of the job that he ended up up with when he moved to, uh, Colorado. He did a lot of custom painting and stuff. So when he moved up here, he started with this business, and he had been working pretty much here all the time. So when I was in high school, this was pretty much my first job. I had moved into as a painter's assistant, so I just kind of worked underneath him doing a lot of stuff in the shop after school. And so I'd kind of worked through that for for quite a while. And then when I graduated, I went to school in Utah. I was— I had big plans. I was going to be an airline— not an airline pilot, but like a commercial pilot. And had, you know, big dreams. I wanted to be that guy that they called me in a hurry and had said, hey, we need to be such and such place at a certain time.

[00:16:44.080] - Chris Mercer

I need you to get out of bed and go get the plane ready. And we're going to go fly there and I need to be there by the morning. And that just sounded like so much fun to me at the time. But Um, spent a couple months going through flight school, had some issues. I've actually been within one flight of finishing my private pilot's license twice. Um, both times we've had some sort of significant issue with it. The first time we had an issue with the, uh, the airplane and it took it out of service for months, and then the regulations changed the second time around. I was ready to do my final, and then my flight instructor got a job in Chicago and then took my logbook and all of that stuff. And after the second time of it, I'm like, maybe this isn't really what I should be doing. So I kind of changed everything, and now everything I do was on the ground. But in kind of in the process of that, I'd gone to school, and when I came back, I didn't actually have a job. So our community college here, they had a job opening.

[00:17:42.060] - Chris Mercer

They needed somebody to help with the computer labs and some stuff like that. So the guy that I had at the time, my boss there, was very knowledgeable in it. So him and I had kind of worked through some stuff, and he taught me a lot as far as diagnosing and replacing stuff and building networks and a lot of software stuff. So it just kind of piqued my interest in it. So I did that for a year, year and a half or so before I ended up moving over to Fort Collins. And I actually worked at the University of Northern Colorado for 3 years, I think almost 4 years, working over there. And then it, like I said, from there when I moved back home, then I've been in the body shop industry ever since. And I work mostly behind a desk.

[00:18:34.780] - Big Rich Klein

So That's okay. Nothing wrong with working behind the desk.

[00:18:38.690] - Chris Mercer

It's not all bad. It's not all bad, but there are days.

[00:18:43.820] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And when you— I know that you are also a firefighter. How did that come about?

[00:18:55.140] - Chris Mercer

Not sure if this is appropriate for the airwaves, but, um, so my wife and I, uh, when we moved home, Obviously, she— we had to have a job, and one of the jobs that she had found at the time happened to be at a local fire supply store. So the gentleman that had the store, he sold fire hose and extrication tools and axes and all kinds of stuff fire-related, and he sold all across the U.S. So he just happened to have a position available, so My wife Tanya had got on with him and it really hadn't piqued my interest. I had absolutely no interest in doing that. Um, so we had moved home in 2001 and in 2002 Tanya and I got married. So a bunch of my friends are like, you know, we're gonna throw them this, this bachelor party and we went to this club in Denver and we just happened to be down there and Her boss happened to be down there at the same time. So it kind of became one of those, you know, we're just sitting around the table having a few beers and he's like, have you ever considered the fire industry?

[00:20:08.030] - Chris Mercer

And I'm like, nope, I have not at all. Never even crossed my mind. And he's like, I think you could probably do it. I think you'd be pretty good at it. And I'm like, well, I'm going to take your word for it. I don't know, but whatever. And he says, well, if you're interested in it, I can get you an interview. I said, okay. So I ended up putting in an application. My wife and I talked about it for a little bit. She's like, I think you'd be all right at it. So let's give it a shot and don't really have anything to lose. And, you know, sometimes when you're new starting out and everything, you tend to have a little bit more free time on your hands. So I was looking for something to kind of fill that time and sat down, made it through the interview. They decided that I qualified for what they were looking for. So in 2003, I joined our volunteer department down there, and 24 years later, I am actually now the fire chief. So, I guess I was better at it than I anticipated.

[00:21:07.890] - Big Rich Klein

So, so you run the, you run the, the body shop as well as the fire chief.

[00:21:18.070] - Chris Mercer

Yes, so my comment earlier about having free time on my hands, that is no longer the case, right? Um, yeah, so I do manage the shop. That's, that's my day job. We are still a volunteer department. Um, we run— we average 1 to 3 calls a day depending on, on the time, but we are still actually a volunteer department. We're one of the only still full volunteer departments in this corner of the state.

[00:21:46.190] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:21:46.740] - Chris Mercer

So we can still make it do, um, and get the job done and all of our guys do it in their spare time.

[00:21:53.740] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Interesting.

[00:21:55.460] - Chris Mercer

Yeah.

[00:21:55.720] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, cool. And, uh, you said you, after college and coming back home is when you, or in college is when you got more into four-wheel drive. Is that correct?

[00:22:12.170] - Chris Mercer

Yeah, yeah. So like I said earlier, there's, there's not a lot out here. We don't have a lot of extreme four-wheel drive trails or anything like that in our area. There's a lot of them in the state which are within a couple hours of where we're at, but nothing really close. And you know, as a poor college or a poor high school kid, you don't have enough money to make these trips out to go to all of these destinations and stuff. So a lot of the four-wheeling that we did was evenings cruising county roads, playing on two tracks, playing in the mud, playing on, you know, during the winter because again we do get quite a bit of snow up here. So we'll be out busting drifts and stuff in the middle of the night. So that was kind of our— the extent of our four-wheeling. And it— full-size pickups, big tires, big engines, that was kind of the thing that we did. But, um, when I had moved— when we had moved to Fort Collins My aunt and uncle lived actually down there as well, and they belonged to the local four-wheel drive club.

[00:23:11.220] - Chris Mercer

And they were— when we moved down there, they were like the only people that we knew. So we kind of hung out a little bit with them, and they invited us down to one of the meetings. And they had the very first event that they had down there right after we moved down there was— they called it their, their Fun Fest. So they actually had— it was games, they had you know, the teeter-totter and the RTI ramp. And again, this is in the late '90s. So what— it was just kind of cool to see the camaraderie and all of the people that were in the club and how they all came together and just had this fun event. It was a blast. So also off of that, the landowner that we happened to be on their property that we were doing this thing happened to be He is now my brother-in-law, but just happened to be one of the guys in the club that I had met down there. And he was a big Toyota guy, but him and his wife at the time were into ranching. And, you know, us coming from a ranching community, going to the city, I'm like, well, this is, you know, these are kind of our people.

[00:24:15.640] - Chris Mercer

So we started hanging out with them. And from there, it just kind of spiraled down because we were attending these four-wheel drive meetings and these these club events and these club trips and they were more in the actually doing designated trail runs and trail cleanups and stuff like that. So we got pretty heavily involved with them. So the club there was the Mountaineers, the Larimer County Four Wheel Drive Club out of Fort Collins. And we joined them in 1998 and we are actually still members. So even though we're on the opposite side of the state now. Still active with them and try to attend as many events as we can. And like I said, it's just a good group of people. So, but that's kind of where it started, and it kind of changed our perspective on it. I remember the first trail we were on wasn't a hard trail by any means. When I look back on it, it's something I could probably— well, I would run it in two-wheel drive now, but at the time you know, 4-wheel drive, and there was a like a 2-foot ledge, and I had to have somebody spot me over this thing because I mean, it scared me pretty bad.

[00:25:25.890] - Chris Mercer

I was just— I was afraid we weren't going to get up it, we were going to break, and it was just really a different realm from what I was used to. So now again, looking back on it, it's not really— it wasn't a difficult trail at the time, but perspective really changes as you get a little deeper into it.

[00:25:44.450] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I can understand that.

[00:25:48.150] - Chris Mercer

Absolutely.

[00:25:50.300] - Big Rich Klein

And when you, when you, when you got into that four-wheel drive, what was the first rig that you had?

[00:26:01.850] - Chris Mercer

So it was my full-size Ford pickup, daily driver. I had to drive it to work every day. And at the time I had again, working in the body shop before I moved over, I just gone through and put a small block in it and put a small lift underneath it. And I mean, it was big at the time. It was, it was kind of clean. It was on 31s, and, and oh my God, it was just so fancy. And once we got down there and kind of changed the perspective on what we were doing, uh, one of the guys, like, on my third or fourth trip over there, he's like, I got a set of tires for it. And set of half worn out 33-inch Super Swampers. Um, and I'm like, well, I could probably make those work. So that, that was the start, because as soon as I got tires, then I had to buy wheels. So then I bought wheels, and then every time we'd take it out on a trail, then I had to swap tires on it. And we'd take it out and we'd play in the, in the rocks and stuff on the big, you know, the 33s.

[00:27:00.970] - Chris Mercer

And like I said, it was just big. From there, we kind of moved off of— I was tired of tearing up the truck that I had to drive to work on Monday, so I built an old— it was a '53 Dodge pickup, not a Power Wagon, the actual like pilot house Dodge pickups. I wanted something short, something a little bit more nimble, so sitting on a Blazer frame, small block Chevy, all Chevy running gear underneath it. Set the cab on there, shortened the bed on it. So it was the length of a full-size Blazer, but full pickup with a really short bed on it. Got creative at the time. And again, this is like late '90s, '97, well, '98, '99. So like buggy springs and quarter ellipticals and all of that stuff was kind of the rage at the time. So I had gone through and did a lot of suspension work, and I use that term very loosely, but it was a great rig. I had 48 inches of wheel travel on this thing. It was great. Flex awesome. Broke every time we took it out. So, one of the first trails we ran with it was the Independence Trail System outside of Penrose.

[00:28:19.930] - Chris Mercer

I've actually ran that trail twice in that truck. It took me 12 hours to do it both times. Both times I had to winch the last, at least the last half of the trail. But like I said, it was, it was something that it sparked that interest, and then it was into the building something that is more capable. And, and it was also great to have a vehicle that I could still drive to work on Monday, so it was kind of a win-win. So when, uh, when I had moved home, I needed something a little different, mostly because that one was breaking all the time and And I'd actually learned quite a bit in the couple years of doing it. So when I moved home, I found a, but I pretty much what it is, I built a '46 flat fender Jeep. As it progresses, you will realize that I'm not really a Jeep person, but this one just happens to be like the best of both worlds. It's the flatty body, seats, the interior, everything, all the dash and everything's pretty much original, but it's got a Toyota running gear underneath it. So, uh, it was kind of, again, the best of both worlds.

[00:29:26.890] - Chris Mercer

I was able to drive it, it was lots of visibility, open air, it was nice to be able to put the windshield down. I mean, there's a lot of things about the Flatty that was really good, but I also had the reliability just based on the parts that I had accumulated over the couple years living on the Front Range that I had a lot of Toyota stuff laying around, so I put that one together and actually I'm still wheeling it. We took it to Easter Jeep Safari last year and ran trails with it, so it's still around. And so we've kind of moved up from there. I've had a handful of them over the years since then. And so like now I just, I have a vehicle pretty much for, for every occasion.

[00:30:09.120] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And when did the competition bug bite you?

[00:30:19.510] - Chris Mercer

Probably around 2006. I had been— some of our four-wheeling that we had done, we spent a lot of time in Moab, spent a lot of time in like the Grand Junction desert running some of the trails and stuff in there. And then again, the stuff on the Front Range, Fort Collins, Denver area. And just seeing some of the, some of the people that I've wheeled with over the years. So Scott Ellinger from Rock Stomper, Brian Ellinger from Diamond Axle, those guys, I mean, I've been wheeling with those since we got into it. They were in the 4-wheel drive club with us when we started. And Brian Ellinger and I pretty much started around the same time. And he had gotten into it and he was running the Formula Toyota at the time. So I thought it was kind of cool. And I didn't know really what we wanted. And it wasn't so much the competition from the four-wheel drive standpoint. But again, as I said earlier, we were big into motocross and supercross and desert racing and stuff when I was a kid. So the competition side's kind of always been there. But this just kind of seemed natural progression from the comp side and the wheeling that we had been doing.

[00:31:40.220] - Chris Mercer

So, I talked with Brian and we just kind of met up one day and he's like, if you're interested in building one, this is kind of what you need to do. So, I met up with him one time and I— after I'd met up with him, we kind of went out. He was living outside of Red Feather. I went out to his place one day and he let me take his buggy out. We took it out and ran. Actually, it's funny, we actually ran the same trail that was the first one that I ran in my old Ford pickup, and we did it in the snow, and we did the whole trail in like 45 minutes. So once we kind of got into that, running this thing back and just seeing the visibility and what you can do with it, and I'm like, this is kind of cool. I think this is what I want to do. So that kind of sparked the whole thing. I, I bought a Hendrix chassis from, um, from Hendrix Motorsports for the, the F toy and put an F toy together. And we— our first comp was in Cedar City in 2009.

[00:32:50.650] - Chris Mercer

And kind of looking back on it, you know, wheeling and comp— and competing are two entirely different things. Um, I've wheeled— all of the guys that I ran with in Cedar City, I had wheeled with them before, and I'm like, I know how these guys wheel, and I've been out on the trail with them, and I'm like, I think I'm pretty competitive. I, I feel that I can do everything that these guys can do. And then we got out there on the course, and it was humbling how inaccurate that statement was because, you know, it's not just about driving. There's a lot of other stuff that goes into it. There's definitely a strategy and how you do do things and don't do things. And our whole thing was to just try to get through the courses. Well, we weren't trying to like save points and how can you— I don't want to say cheat the system, but how can you get creative within the rules and doing the stuff in order to get the best score? And like I said, we were just trying to get through the courses. And at the end of the weekend, when it was all said and done, we realized that it's not the same.

[00:33:56.460] - Chris Mercer

So, so we started it, like I said, in, in 2009 was our first comp. We came back in 2010, ran the Formula Toyota class for the entire West Coast season, and that year we actually took the national championship, um, in the FTOY class, which was our first full year of competing. And then I believe in 2011 the Formula Toyota class went away. So it's my understanding that technically we are still the reigning FTOY champions.

[00:34:28.120] - Big Rich Klein

There you go.

[00:34:29.550] - Chris Mercer

Take that for what it's worth.

[00:34:32.600] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that class, I thought I had really high hopes for it, and then all of a sudden it just kind of—

[00:34:37.980] - Chris Mercer

it—

[00:34:38.300] - Big Rich Klein

everybody that was running in the Formula Toy class either stepped up and went to, you know, full-blown buggies, um, like unlimited cars, or just kind of stopped competing.

[00:34:53.450] - Chris Mercer

Yes, I, I would agree with that. Most of the people that we ran with, um, kind of— most of them, I think, kind of got out of the comp scene, really. Uh, there's still a couple of them around. I've seen my wife's part of this FTOY post or Facebook group, and it sounds like there's a couple of them I've actually seen 2 or 3 of them for sale here lately, so maybe it's coming back.

[00:35:17.440] - Big Rich Klein

It would be nice. It would be nice.

[00:35:20.650] - Chris Mercer

It was a cool class. It really was. The spec class part of it, um, really put into perspective driving skill versus just, you know, the product, because the vehicles were all pretty much set up the same. Luckily, I got in on the end of it when they had made some of the changes. With like gearing and stuff like that. But of all of the vehicles that we were running with, we were all pretty much set up identical. All had same size tires. All running the same worn out engines. All running, you know, multiple T-cases and all of that stuff. And we were really limited on what we could do. So, it really made it a driver's class more so than a money class, which was good. It was cool to see that. And it really put it in perspective, you know, how good of a driver you are or can be. And really on our side, our problem was is we got to the point where we were out-driving the car. We ran 2013 or some— maybe it was '15, I don't remember the year, but we actually ran Pro Mod in the FBOY. And took third.

[00:36:34.830] - Chris Mercer

So it was just, it was kind of cool to see. But again, I think a lot of the people, like you said, moving on to full buggies, they just realized that they were outdriving the capabilities that were offered by that class and had to move into something a little bigger. And then it snowballs from there, right?

[00:36:54.260] - Big Rich Klein

I think the biggest downfall for, well, the Toyotas, if you're running Toyota running gear is the steering angle, especially in competition. When you're on a trail, it doesn't really matter as much. But when you're in competition, you know, that backup or, you know, running over that cone costs you.

[00:37:14.960] - Chris Mercer

Yes. And it adds up really fast. I will say, just from our competition side of it, it has changed the way even on the wheeling, the trail wheeling and stuff that we do, um, I find myself backing off of things that I would have never considered to back off of, but it made it easier. We spent more time in reverse, I think. Well, that and on our top, but we spent a lot of time in reverse on a lot of the courses just because it was almost easier to drive the course with— I mean, if you're in reverse, front steering becomes rear steer. And you can move the vehicle around just based on how, you know, the— you get the rear tires where they got to go, and then you swing the front tires around where it made it a little easier maybe to maneuver around the courses. And it just really just because of, like you said, the steering angle and no front dig and lack of, you know, certain things that the newer vehicles have or the full-on comp buddies have. It just changed the driving style a lot. You just have to look at things outside of the box, and that's really what the key came down to, was, was just, just thinking of a better way to do it, to not run over that cone, or, you know, not have to take that backup or change of direction, I guess, since we were already in reverse.

[00:38:41.390] - Big Rich Klein

So looking at your, your yard and the cars that you have around your house. To let people know, I've been out to Chris's— Chris and Tanya's house a number of times. And in fact, just recently, Chris with the body shop put a new bed on the Raptor and did a phenomenal job. So if anybody needs bodywork done and you're anywhere close to Craig, Colorado, it's worth it's worth it. Um, great job. Anyway, the— you have a wide variety of vehicles out there. How many of those are running, and which ones are they?

[00:39:27.750] - Chris Mercer

You would have to ask that. You should have given me a heads up so I could count them. Actually, I think when I counted them the other day, I've got like 23 of them sitting out there. Of the ones— I do have quite a few parts vehicles that I've bought for certain things. But I keep a range of vehicles. I keep at least a stockpile of at least 5 of them running at any given time. I've got my old, the old Flatty still running around. I've got my vehicle-based adventuring Tacoma. I've got my— I've got an '87 Toyota pickup. It's— it kind of looks like a Raisin, but it's— it's got all the Toyota stuff on. It's actually set up identical to what my FTOY was. Um, I still got it for my difficult crawling, but not the extreme stuff. And then I haven't actually competed in the last couple years, but we still have the comp buggy. I actually took it to Jeep Safari this year and ran it on a trail down there. And so I keep those going. My wife got an '85 Toyota 4Runner that she's had since— actually since we lived in Fort Collins.

[00:40:39.530] - Chris Mercer

It was the first 4-wheel drive that we had actually bought, or at least crawler that we had bought. She's very attached to it. So still have it. So I keep all of those running. And again, it depends on which terrain we're going to. We're looking at— just going on a Sunday cruise up into the mountains, we take the Flatty. If we're looking at doing a lot of these backcountry week-long trips and stuff, we take the Tacoma. If we're going to Moab or we're going to Grand Junction or some of the other events where we're out actually crawling, then we load them in the toy hauler and we'll take the 4Runner and my little, uh, the '87 pickup. And if we're gonna go do something stupid or we're running with the buggy group, then we take the F-Toy. Um, there's a couple other ones out there. My son's got an '87 extended cab Toyota pickup that's kind of set up full caged, and, and it looks actually worse than my truck does. But, um, he's been competing in that since he was 12, I think. Um, so it's sitting out there. And then, then there's a a plethora of, like I said, spare part stuff.

[00:41:50.870] - Chris Mercer

I've got, um, just some, some older stuff, some stuff that I someday maybe will put together. I've got an old Willys wagon that my wife wants to pull her camper around with, and just some, some other vehicles, I guess. A couple extra Tacomas that I'm looking at putting together to maybe retire some of the existing vehicles I've got and put something in maybe that's a little bit nicer, a little bit comfortable to drive, a little bigger, and maybe not so much of an eyesore.

[00:42:23.690] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. So when did you— when did you jump into the, into the semi?

[00:42:33.640] - Chris Mercer

As a tow rig? So when we were competing in 2010, spent a lot of time— I had at the time, I had a 2000 Dodge extended cab turbo diesel. And there, it was not very comfortable. There were many times when we were traveling to, we spent, because again, where we're at, everywhere we had to go was a drive. So that year we were in Tucson, we were in Cedar City, we were in Oroville, we were in, I don't actually remember where else we were at, couple of them in Salt Lake. So, everything that we were doing was a drive. And being new into it, you know, the whole family wants to go. So, my wife wanted to go with us. And then my spotter, who technically is actually my brother-in-law now. So, it would usually be the 3 of us and then my son was with us at the time. So, you know, so we had 4 or 5 people running around in an extended cab Dodge pickup. And it was just not— comfortable. We made it work, but it wasn't great. And fuel mileage on it, pulling an enclosed trailer with the buggy and everything that you need, spare tires, and you just never know.

[00:43:47.880] - Chris Mercer

So we, we carried a lot of spare parts. So we pretty much had one of everything spare so we could put this thing together and keep it in the, in the competition. That because, again, we were there to win. So, um, fuel mileage on that thing was terrible. And when you put it all together, it just, it was kind of an expensive couple years. So around 2013, I think, um, one of the, some friends of ours just over the Wyoming border, uh, one of their helping hands, he had moved from Oklahoma and he had this semi and had been parked in the barn for a while. He bought it specifically to move to this ranch and it had been sitting there. Well, him and his wife ended up splitting up and He needed to get rid of it and it was part of the agreement. So, he called and asked if I was interested in buying it. Made me a really good offer on it. So, I pretty much ended up with the semi. And then it worked really well because it was— it got the same fuel mileage. The fuel mileage on it really isn't any different than what I was getting out of my Cummins pickup.

[00:44:54.070] - Chris Mercer

But I can pull a lot more weight with it. So that kind of snowballed. Um, we, we haul 2 vehicles on. I've got a 30-foot gooseneck that we haul multiple vehicles on everywhere we go. My wife and I are pretty much set up that we're, we're standalone. So if just the 2 of us go out, we have 2 rigs that we can go out there and just go out by ourselves, even though we're not really by ourselves. We're not single vehicle. But so it kind of went from there, and then, um, the semi just made it more comfortable, makes it a lot easier to drive longer distances. Um, the truck that we've got, it's got bunk beds in it, it's got a full sleeper on it. So, um, we just started kind of using it as a, almost like an RV. Uh, still use it for some stuff around the house and, um, but it kind of snowballed from there. Um, I really, I've always wanted to build a toy hauler out of the semi-trailer, so we opted to, to do that. So if we're going to Moab for a week, or we're going to Johnson Valley, or we're going to Arizona, or whatever, we can load the rigs up in the back of it, drive it to wherever we're going, park the truck.

[00:46:01.770] - Chris Mercer

We've got full amenities in there. So we built the toy hauler in 2017, I think it was. Full kitchen, full bathroom, bedroom, front It's a 53-foot trailer. The front 21 feet are living quarters. The 32 at the back is, uh, long enough that I can put the two vehicles in there. Um, I can put my Tacoma in there and my comp buggy or her 4Runner and my Toyota pickup or whatever. And we just take them out and we, we run them wherever. And it's a good base camp, right? So that's kind of where it's progressed to. Um, I don't actually use it as much as I would like to. I was thinking about that yesterday when I just kind of looked out there and I'm like, we really ought to take the truck someplace. But I think we'll have to wait for fuel prices to come down a little bit to make it cost us.

[00:46:52.950] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:46:54.650] - Chris Mercer

Yeah.

[00:46:55.030] - Big Rich Klein

But still, I mean, when you look at what a pickup truck costs and then if you're having to do hotels or just even camping, how inconvenient. And, you know, especially if you go someplace longer than you know, 1 or 2 nights. Um, going the semi-truck route, when we finally did it with WeRock, it was— it just made so much more sense to, you know, when breaking it down cost-wise. Yeah, you're paying, you know, you're not getting as good a gas mileage. I mean, with mine, with the load that I was drawing and everything, I was averaging 7 to 8 miles a gallon. Well, most people that are towing heavy loads are doing the same thing. You know, they're not getting that much better. And then, you know, the breakdown, I mean, I spent, when I had to redo the, when I had to do tires was probably the biggest expense. And that was every 2 to 3 years. And I put on a lot of mileage, but I would have had to do that on a pickup and a regular trailer every year.

[00:48:09.120] - Chris Mercer

Exactly. So we kind of looked at that when we went to it that, I mean, my Dodge with, like I said, with the enclosed trailer, I was getting 7 to 8 miles to the gallon out of it. Um, I had a 70-gallon transfer tank in the back of it and it didn't really matter. You're getting the same amount of mileage, but I had to stop every, you know, couple hundred miles and fill it back up again. That's the nice thing about the semi. I mean, other than you have to refinance the house every time you want to fill it up, but 200 gallons of fuel, it costs an arm and leg to fill it, but you can drive all the way to where you're going. I took it to Moab Jeep Safari and I drove it down there and I drove it back on half a tank. I would have done the same thing in my pickup, but it was just— it was a straight shot. We didn't have to stop all the time. The other advantage, like you said, is having it from the living quarters standpoint on it. When we— in 2020, when we ran, we took it to Mason.

[00:49:10.530] - Chris Mercer

We ran down there for the We Rock event in Mason, and that was a long drive. I mean, we drove all day for 2 days before we got to where we were going. But it was nice even with the amount of people in there because you can stand up and kind of walk around inside of it. Sleeper's not that big, but it's big enough that you can stand up in there. The full refrigerator in there, the stereo, got a TV in there if you really want it. There's enough room that if, you know, if you can sleep while you're driving. So it's similar to a motorhome, but Even when you get to where you're going with us pulling the toy hauler behind it, I didn't have to stay at a campground. I didn't have to stay at a hotel. I could stay at a truck stop because it looks like a duck, so it's got to be a duck. So I didn't have any, you know, there wasn't, there wasn't any issues from that standpoint. But I also didn't have any issues just finding a wide spot on the side of the road or anything like that.

[00:50:08.380] - Chris Mercer

So it works really well from that standpoint. I take my hotel with me. I can cook my food in it. So we don't eat with the, with the toy hauler behind it. I don't even have to actually like go out and eat. We can stop wherever and make dinner on the side of the road because again, it's got a full kitchen in it. So it's just like pulling an RV, it's just you've got your vehicles with you at the same time. And it— but the other thing with that is It's much more comfortable to drive from point A to point B than it was in my pickup. I know some of these new trucks are super fancy and they got great seats and all of that, but usually we have to like make it a point to stop when we're traveling just so we can use the restroom because it's not like you're, you know, you're all cramped up when you get out of the truck. I mean, these trucks are designed to run over the road for thousands of miles, and they're designed for people to be comfortable in them. So, I think it was a really good choice on our side.

[00:51:13.290] - Chris Mercer

Yeah, it took a little bit to convince myself that this is really the way we want to go with it, but knock on wood, ours has been pretty much trouble-free. We've replaced a couple parts in it. It's had a transmission in it. And replace the AC in it and the exhaust and the tires. Tires are kind of big, but ours is a single axle, so I only had to replace 6 at a time. But instead of, you know, $100 and some dollars a piece, they're $400 a piece. But I, I've only replaced the tires on them once since I've had it. So I'm going to say this, the numbers have kind of equaled out anyway.

[00:51:54.760] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:51:55.390] - Chris Mercer

Yeah.

[00:51:56.030] - Big Rich Klein

And I liked, you know, the truck because it didn't break down. You know, we could carry the Jeep, we could carry everything that we needed for the, for both Dirt Riot and We Rock. It was comfortable to live in. You know, we did an outdoor kitchen everywhere we set up. So, you know, we didn't have the indoor kitchen, but, you know, it was, it worked out really well. I can't believe more people didn't do it.

[00:52:25.680] - Chris Mercer

The only problem that we've really had with it is you have to, you have to spend a lot more time doing research if you're going to be taking it places. My wife and I took it on a, did a 2-week vacation up through Montana, through Yellowstone, up to Glacier, across California into Seattle. Back down through Utah— or not Utah, sorry, Oregon. And we were on the coast. We spent 2 weeks with it, and we just threw the Tacoma in the back, and we would drive. We'd find a campground, we would stay there, we'd unload the Tacoma, and then we'd go sightseeing. So it worked really well from that standpoint because we had— we weren't having to drive 2 vehicles everywhere we went. We took the camper And when we got to our campsite, we just unloaded and went from there. But in that 2-week trip, we actually had a couple campgrounds— like, one of them was like, yeah, we can fit you in there. And then when we got in there, there's like, there is no way this is physically going to fit in here, right? Um, we've got a couple of them. We had one in Seattle that we were trying— or in Spokane, Washington— that we tried and tried and tried, but no matter how far we cut it, the lanes were just too narrow.

[00:53:44.390] - Chris Mercer

We couldn't get it into the camping spot without trying to run over their posts and tables and stuff like that. And really what that— what it turned into is instead of trying to pull through, I realized that it was actually easier to back into them. So everything we were doing was alley docking after that. We just pulled past on the exit and just back it right in there, and they went in great. And it's kind of that whole back to the old Toyota F-Toy thing that, you know, think outside of the box. And it was a lot easier to maneuver it backing it up than it was driving it. So it kind of relates. But yeah, doing the research on it and making sure that physically it will fit in there. I spent a lot of time before that vacation doing Google Maps and Google Earth so I could actually look at the campgrounds and see, yeah, this one's not going to really work. Maybe I need to look for something a little bit more open to get in there. So that, that's really the biggest challenge we ran into with it. I mean, honestly, that's really the only issues that I've ever had with it so far.

[00:54:48.700] - Big Rich Klein

So what is, what is in the future for Chris?

[00:54:58.060] - Chris Mercer

Well, that is a really good question. Um, I've got some things in the works, uh, working with some people. Um, I'm, I'm working on maybe becoming— what I'm looking forward to or looking into is maybe becoming like a, an off-road instructor, recovery instructor, um, just off-road driving in general. I feel that a lot of the skills that I have acquired over the years may be useful to some of the newer people. There's a lot of people that we have that are out there now that are, they're new into the sport, they're new into the, this whole off-roading arena anyway. And with the advent— not the advent, but the introduction of the Rubicon and, and the side-by-sides, and there's just a lot more vehicles out there that are capable of getting people out versus what it used to be. You used to have to kind of build your vehicles if you were going to go see all this stuff. And now it's a little bit easier to get those financing or whatever. But you can, you can just go down to the power— the power sports place and you can buy a vehicle that will take you places that 20 years ago you you had to have a capable rig to go see.

[00:56:18.410] - Chris Mercer

So what that's also done, I think, is the people that are going out and experiencing this maybe don't have as much of the off-road knowledge and experience that they did, you know, that some of us nowadays have that are going out and doing the same thing. So what I'm kind of looking into transitioning into is maybe becoming an instructor to, to help some of these people do that and, and bring them up to that level.

[00:56:50.020] - Big Rich Klein

Well, and you do a lot of instructing with the being a fire chief, is correct?

[00:56:57.260] - Chris Mercer

Correct. Yeah. I am, I'm actually a state-certified fire instructor. So, I teach or help teach our academy. I am actually used to be anyways, part of this, um, this back ties back in with the gentleman that my wife worked for. He sold extrication tools to all over the state. So, I was part of his group that I would go out and teach these fire departments how to use these tools and, and techniques on cutting people out of cars and, and all of that. And so, the, the teaching side of it has really become something that I really enjoy doing. I, I've considered maybe looking into an instructor side of it on the fire side as well, but as much as I enjoy doing that, I mean, honestly, the, the motorsports side of it is really kind of where my heart's set at. So I think I can tie the two of them together just based on my instructing experience that I've had and how a lot of that stuff kind of ties together that hopefully I can make something out of that that'll be beneficial to a lot of individuals. Right. We'll see how things go.

[00:58:13.900] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. That sounds like a, like a good future. I like that. And, and still running the body shop and the, you know, just filling all the, the spare time that you have right now.

[00:58:27.210] - Chris Mercer

Yes. Yeah. So, I'm going to have to find a little bit more, I guess. It'll just come down to prioritizing and, you know, seeing where things are going. I kind of not necessarily at that point where I'm ready to retire yet, but from the fire side of it, I'm kind of at that point where I could retire from there at any time, you know, just based on years of service. So, that may free up some time or it may just change the path a little bit. Kind of see how that, how it, how things go in the next few months.

[00:59:00.750] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Perfect. And you getting ready for the summer up there in Craig? The winter over? You guys didn't get much, get much of a winter this year.

[00:59:13.350] - Chris Mercer

We didn't get a winter at all this year. We've had a couple spring storms that have ran through in the last month, 6 weeks, and we've actually had more snow in each of those storms than we pretty much had all winter here. Usually when it snows and it gets cold here, it's not uncommon for us to hit 30, 40 below zero for a week at a time during January, February.

[00:59:42.410] - Big Rich Klein

Yuck.

[00:59:43.310] - Chris Mercer

This year we pretty much had a very mild winter this year. Didn't have to really wear your heavy coat at all. I didn't plow snow at all this year. So from the wildland side of it, we'll see how things go. We've been getting some rain and some moisture coming through. So that's kind of a godsend at this point. I'm going to take it for what I can, you know, what we can get out of it. We're kind of ramping up. Tanya signed up for the Nomad Virtual Overland Rally again. So I think this will be our third or fourth year doing it. And so that starts in June. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully I'm not so tied up on the fire side that I can't make those trips with her, but it's always a good time. We get out and we see a lot of the stuff around. We're going to try to do a week-long vacation through Southwest Utah this summer. Go see the swell before they close it all down. Some stuff on the backside of Escalante and stuff. So it should be kind of fun. I've never been down there and it just seems like a cool area and we're going to go see it in the middle of June.

[01:00:51.770] - Chris Mercer

Hopefully it's not too hot. Excellent.

[01:00:54.820] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Sounds good. Well, I'm glad to hear that you got a plan, you know.

[01:01:01.460] - Chris Mercer

I got a plan. Excellent.

[01:01:04.990] - Big Rich Klein

Well, Chris, I want to say thank you so much for for sharing your life and your, uh, you know, what you do and your aspirations and how you've gotten to where you're going and, uh, and where you're at. I think that's awesome. I, I really appreciate it. You said that you were really worried about it because you, you don't public speak and you don't do this and you don't do that, and you nailed this. It was great.

[01:01:31.940] - Chris Mercer

Well, I appreciate that. It's not that I don't do public speaking, but I have been known to say something that that maybe I shouldn't on occasion. So I appreciate it.

[01:01:40.460] - Big Rich Klein

And I don't?

[01:01:41.250] - Chris Mercer

You're keeping me in line on that.

[01:01:44.690] - Big Rich Klein

You know me long enough to know that I say what I need to say too. So it's all good.

[01:01:49.680] - Chris Mercer

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, just the backlash. It's one thing if you say it and it's not recorded. It's another thing when it's recorded and broadcast to the world. That changes things a little. So, but again, I appreciate you keeping me in line and And thanks for the invite. It's been good.

[01:02:05.940] - Big Rich Klein

Great. I appreciate it. And you and Tonya have a great summer and we'll talk some more. Thank you.

[01:02:12.990] - Chris Mercer

We will be around. I appreciate it.

[01:02:14.610] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. You take care. Thank you.

[01:02:16.780] - Chris Mercer

Bye-bye. All right. You do the same. All right. Bye.

[01:02:20.050] - 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 text message or 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.