Blame it on the Samurai, Thomas Meiser on Episode 322

Thomas Meiser is a rock buggy fabricator and off-road enthusiast from Magna, Utah. Once a competitive baseball player coached by his father, Thomas shifted to fabrication after discovering the Suzuki Samurai at age 16—a pivotal moment that redirected his passion entirely.

Early Career Path
Thomas worked under influential mentors including Casey Beach (Beaches Off-Road) and Ben Hanks Racing, where he learned welding fundamentals and tubing work. After Caterpillar's internship program and structural steel fabrication, he found his true calling at Midnight 4x4 with JC, working with CNC burning tables and tube cutters.

Building Fab'n 801
In 2018, Thomas launched Fab'n 801 (named from his habit of saying "I'm fab'n" in the garage, plus Salt Lake's 801 area code). He's built over 5,000 chassis for customers worldwide—in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Italy, and even Guam—and designed 15+ unique chassis platforms for Toyotas, Samurais, and Jeeps.

Future Vision
Thomas recently invested in 5 acres near Parowan, Utah (surrounded by BLM land and six canyons), where he plans to build a new fabrication shop. He's exploring RC rock crawling innovations to inform real-life buggy design and actively seeking a business partner to help scale operations. His YouTube channel (Fab'n 801) showcases builds and off-road adventures.

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.

[00:00:46.610] 

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[00:01:12.930] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week is a fabricator of rock buggies, an off-road enthusiast, rock crawler, part-time competitor with a great reputation for building lightweight buggies with a popular design called The Rock Lizard. My guest is Thomas Meiser. Hello, Thomas Meiser. So good to have you on the podcast. Been looking forward to this and finding out more about you.

[00:01:37.800] - Thomas Meiser

Right on, Big Rich. Uh, super excited to be on here and, uh, go forward with this.

[00:01:43.660] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, so let's, uh, let's start at the very beginning. And I asked the same question of everybody, all 700 and For 321 episodes now, I think it is 7 years of doing this.

[00:01:57.630] - Thomas Meiser

Where were you born and raised? So I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, um, and that's in Utah, um, in 1986. So I am a '90s baby, which is pretty cool.

[00:02:13.860] - Big Rich Klein

Definitely miss those years, but And were in that Salt Lake area, were you like in Salt Lake or were you out in the outskirts, suburbs? What, where was it?

[00:02:27.270] - Thomas Meiser

Um, so specifically I was raised in Magna, Utah, which is on the west side of Salt Lake. Um, I was born in Salt Lake in a hospital in Salt Lake, but my parents lived in Magna, Utah. Um, and I ended up doing elementary school in Magna and all the way up into uh, middle school. And at that time, my parents have transitioned and moved to Herriman, Utah, which is farther south but still on the west side of the Utah Valley there.

[00:03:01.640] - Big Rich Klein

And that was in the '80s. Yeah, that was probably pretty— still pretty rural, wasn't it?

[00:03:08.130] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, it was. Um, it was kind of funny growing up in Magna. It was right at the bottom of Kennecott Mine. Um, kind of funny enough, a lot of people always made fun of like the water. People in Magna, if you drink the water, you were kind of, kind of different. So I made sure to drink a lot of water so you would be different, huh?

[00:03:30.740] - Big Rich Klein

Yes, sir. Is that— is that for people that don't know, Thomas has a nice set of dreads. Um, I appreciate that. And, uh, Amongst my friends, I always say, you know, yeah, he's— Thomas is our resident Rastafarian. So, yep. And so when trying to be different, was that really a conscious effort back when you were—

[00:03:59.130] - Thomas Meiser

No, no, I don't think so. Kind of real funny, I played from T-ball all the way to high school. I was I played baseball. I was heavily involved in Super Leagues. I even went to a couple of world championships in my teenage years in Las Vegas and California. Yeah, which is really funny because I totally was a clean-cut kid. I didn't go more than 5, 6 days without a haircut because I was a pitcher on the field. And so for me to have long hair and being all crazy was just not— that wasn't it for me. So I actually had short hair all the way up until I was 21 years old. Wow. Which is kind of funny. And now I'm going on my 20th year with dreads. So if you didn't pick up on that, I'm 40, right?

[00:04:56.080] - Big Rich Klein

I got that.

[00:04:58.900] - Thomas Meiser

So kind of crazy. Um, But yeah, I mean, growing up in Magna, Utah was— it was pretty raw. We didn't have a lot of wheeling back there, and that didn't even really become part of my life until after high school. So like I said, I played a lot of baseball. It's kind of fun. My dad was my baseball coach all the way to high school, and we ended up taking first place from T-ball to high school. I have a first place trophy every year. Wow. That's pretty cool. It's kind of fun to look back and, you know, all the good times we had. We had the same baseball team for many years, so a good group of kids and just played well with each other and really learned like team value, you know? Right.

[00:05:45.200] - Big Rich Klein

Was that something that you wanted to get in yourself, into yourself, or was your dad a baseball player before that and it just became kind of a natural thing?

[00:05:54.800] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, I think like a lot of families, it kind of— my dad was huge into baseball, you know, and I think I was trying to— he was trying to have me fill a spot he couldn't fill in his age gap. So he created one hell of a baseball player out of me, I'll tell you that. Um, he could, he could tell me to hit the ball left field over the fence and I could do that. It was pretty crazy. Um, but I, but it Playing ball, I, I definitely grew a passion for it, and it was definitely something I was chasing to be a professional baseball player, you know, in my teenage years. Um, and then I'm not gonna lie, Suzuki Samurai screwed all that up.

[00:06:35.550] - Big Rich Klein

So it wasn't a girl? It wasn't a girl, it was a samurai. It was a Suzuki Samurai. So, so let's explore before we get into the, the the off-road aspect was, I guess baseball was pretty much consuming. So summer months and spring, um, you guys as a family were doing the baseball thing. And so camping, anything like that happen as well?

[00:07:01.770] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah. Um, my dad, he was definitely an outdoorsy kind of guy. So when we weren't playing baseball, we were totally fishing, um, or hunting. I started hunting when I was like 10 years old with a shotgun and rabbits. He would just take us clear out into the Tuilla Valley, which is farther west in Utah, and go drop us out there and let us run around and kill bunnies. That was really fun. And then that led right into some big game hunting, you know. So when I was 14, my parents moved out to Harriman, like I said, for my middle school and high school years. But when we moved to Herriman, I ended up getting a job on a ranch at the age of like 14, 15 years old. Um, and on the ranch, we were, you know, taking care of livestock, um, throwing hay bales, just your typical ranching kind of thing, you know. But what the guy that—

[00:08:01.440] - Big Rich Klein

what precipitated the move with your parents going from Magna to Herriman?

[00:08:07.380] - Thomas Meiser

Um, my dad was really— he really liked to be in the rural areas and kind of like out on the outside of the valley, you know. Okay. Um, and Magna started to kind of grow and populate with people, and so he just— I don't know, he just made a move and made a move out to Herriman, which, which was like, you know, it's an hour, maybe 45 minutes south, but when we were younger kids, it felt like we were going 3, 4 hours away, you know.

[00:08:38.680] - Big Rich Klein

What did your dad do for work?

[00:08:41.660] - Thomas Meiser

Um, he was a heavy equipment mechanic. Okay. For Caterpillar. So, so when we lived in Magna, he worked at Caterpillar, which was on 21st in California. So it was pretty close to Magna. Um, yeah, and then when we moved to Herriman, he ended up getting a job at the Salt Lake County Landfill as a heavy equipment lube engineer. Okay. Um, and he did that for like 5 or 6 years, and then when I graduated high school, he started his own company. Um, he went and bought a service truck in 2018. He actually got fired from his job, went and took a big, big leap and bought a service truck and put his name on it and just got busy and ended up, uh, retiring out after like 12 years of working doing that. So nice, nice, really awesome. But when we were in Herriman, I think he moved to Herriman because it was a little closer to some hunting. Um, we were right up against, uh, Butterfield Canyon and Kennecott at that point. Which was all still pretty open to OHV kind of stuff. So when we moved to Herriman, that's kind of when all the Jeeping picked up.

[00:10:04.670] - Thomas Meiser

My dad always had a Jeep in high school, and when he was young, he had CJ-5s and so on. But when I was born in '86, they bought a Samurai. 16 years later, after all of the baseball, all the hunting, and all that stuff, they ended up giving me that Samurai for high school. Nice. And that's where baseball kind of stopped. I was, you know, I kept instead of going— I mean, obviously after high school there wasn't much ball to play unless you were really chasing it, but that's kind of where I got screwed up with the Suzuki Samurai and chasing rocks and canyons at that point, right? So kind of, kind of pulled me away from playing ball, which, you know, I I don't regret that at all. But so when you—

[00:10:52.760] - Big Rich Klein

how were you as a student? Were you a good student or were you always looking to get out of the classroom and go play ball or just go run around?

[00:11:02.560] - Thomas Meiser

Um, I was, I was a decent student. Um, kind of funny, a lot of friends now, you know, I never, I never got into too much trouble. I always had to have pretty good grades because of baseball. And was pretty focused, honestly, in school. I really liked the interaction with the teachers and the students and was kind of a class clown. I could see that. Yeah, but I kept it mild. It was more on the fun side of things versus the bad side of things. But— Right. So I just had a really good liking My school, the schools I went to when I was, my high school was full of cowboys and I wasn't a cowboy. So that was a little hard getting used to, you know, the cowboy scene, but we ended up making it work. And like I said, I was clean cut in high school. I wouldn't leave the house. This is pretty funny, Big Rich. I wouldn't leave the house unless I cleaned my shoes. Wow. I had to have a new shirt I wouldn't wear my clothes, I wouldn't wear them twice. I always had to have a shirt that was clean.

[00:12:17.690] - Thomas Meiser

Kind of funny. So I had a lot of OCD, I think, as a kid.

[00:12:21.410] - Big Rich Klein

So that pitcher-type mentality. Yes. Because you're— everybody during a game is watching the pitcher.

[00:12:29.800] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah. And that's kind of how my life was perspected at that point. You know, I always felt like I was kind of like on the mound and people are watching me, you know? Right. And so I always tried to keep that. And my dad drilled it in my head, you know, that your, your first appearance is everlasting with people, right? And so I always tried to make sure my T's were crossed, my I's were dotted, you know, right?

[00:12:58.270] - Big Rich Klein

And how did that play out with all those cowboys?

[00:13:01.540] - Thomas Meiser

Um, it was really cool. We ended up— I made some friends with them. Um, as soon as they found out I worked on a ranch, I just dressed different than we were all we were all in the same mindset, right?

[00:13:12.670] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, shoes got a little dirtier, your butt, your pants got a little flashier. Yeah, totally.

[00:13:21.100] - Thomas Meiser

Well, looking back at it now, I'm kind of fortunate, um, because my parents, when we moved out of the Magna area, um, it was kind of getting populated with Tongans, um, and colored people, if you would. So I think that kind of pushed us out of that area. And then when we moved to Herriman, I was around the cowboys and trucks and mud and, you know, animals and stuff. So it was just a big change, I guess, in a teenager's years. So I kind of look back at it as good because who knows if I was still in Magna drinking that water and hanging out with a different crowd, who knows where I'd be, you know?

[00:14:01.530] - Big Rich Klein

Right, right. That's, that's for sure. So when, um, when you were through high school and playing ball and then, you know, and hanging out with, with the more of the Cowboy crowd, was, uh, what, what, what made you get— take that Samurai and start building on it, or did you just run it stock until you broke something and then used that as an excuse to upgrade? Or how did you get involved in, in the expansion of the sport for you?

[00:14:38.770] - Thomas Meiser

Um, it was kind of funny. So my dad, he kind of left that Sammy stock. My mom would actually drive it back and forth to work. It was her daily driver. Um, when they gave it to me when I turned 16, they gave it to me, um, which was really awesome. And we ended up— gotta think for a minute, think back. So we ended up taking that Samurai, and the summer before high school, me and my dad ended up doing like a frame-off resto to it. Okay. So we ended up taking the body off, we boxed, we patched in some of the frame, we did a spring over. We painted the body, we put it back, we've got it all back together, and it just looks sharper than shit, you know. And it's on like 31s if I remember right. And then where things really got serious and kicked off for me is when I drove it to high school that year. I ended up meeting a cool cat named Casey Beach. Oh really? Okay. Yes sir. So I ended up going to high school with Casey. And if you know any history with the Beaches, then you know his dad had Beach— uh, what was it, Beaches Off-Road, right?

[00:15:57.650] - Thomas Meiser

I believe, which was early '90s, um, when he had that shop. So anyways, I ended up going to school with Casey Beach, um, and then when I met him, he was building a Jeep, of course, because his dad owned an off-road shop. And then come to find out, Casey's dad ended up living like, I don't know, 4 or 5 blocks away from my parents in Harriman. So I went from hanging out with the Cowboys and playing baseball to having a samurai and hanging out with Casey Beach for 2 or 3 years. And that just involved, you know, he had a welder and a bender, and so I was going over to his place And that's where I kind of got a first lick in of fabrication, right? That's where it was going down. And it really pulled me in at that time, Rich. So, and I didn't think much of it and I couldn't do much with it because I didn't have the equipment and I didn't know how. So I was just trying to be a sponge and just soak it all in. And I was really fascinated with it. So Um, after high school, which is a short 2 years, I still had the Samurai.

[00:17:15.200] - Thomas Meiser

And, um, it's kind of funny, I was actually coming home from a baseball practice and I ended up getting sideswiped in the Samurai. Yeah, so the insurance, we ended up— they totaled it out. Um, and then You know, my mom and dad had a great idea to go to the wrecking yard and see if we could buy it back. Well, we ended up buying it back for like $200, $300. So that's where I ended up learning how to fix and repair vehicles, honestly. So we got it back and the frame was twisted, the leaf springs were broke. It was in bad shape. And so It's thick. So while it was broke, I ended up buying another Samurai to drive. We bought that Samurai back and it went into the shop. And then my dad was working at the landfill at the time, so he ended up bringing a couple 24-volt batteries home, some jumper cables, and a can full of stick rod. And that's literally where I first started welding in the shop. So we had, we had that all set up and we were— I was able to make some bumpers and sliders for the Samurai.

[00:18:37.000] - Big Rich Klein

All with battery-powered jumpers. And cables, yep.

[00:18:41.510] - Thomas Meiser

Wow. And so, you know, at that point I never trusted it. I— it worked, but I was like, I don't know what if it's gonna work, you know. And it was shortly after that my, my dad wanted to get more involved and he ended up buying a Jeep. And things just kind of escalated really fast at that point for me. Um, it was like probably a year after high school. I was working on that Samurai very slowly in the Dad's shop. I ended up getting word there was a new fabrication shop in town in Sandy, Utah, so I ended up driving my little Samurai up there and bombing in there and, uh, asking this new shop for a job, which ended up being Ben Hanks Racing.

[00:19:38.640] - Big Rich Klein

Oh my God. Yeah, so first Casey and then to Ben.

[00:19:43.450] - Thomas Meiser

Yep, so I got to step into Beaches Off-Road and see a bunch of cool stuff there. I actually got to see Casey's dad put together the first quarter elliptic spring back in like '92 and take it out to Little Mohave and see what it would do. That was really cool. Um, but yeah, and then I ended up walking into Ben Haines Racing, and if you know Ben, he's such a good, cool dude. He totally gave me the opportunity to be in-house with him and the few guys he had working for him. And I'll tell you, that's where it really kicked it off for me, and I seen an opportunity for myself of building vehicles, you know. Nice.

[00:20:24.660] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I interviewed Ben probably within— well, within the last year. I can't remember exactly which episode it is, but, uh, yeah, I figured you guys did.

[00:20:37.000] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, I actually caught that. I caught a little bit of that podcast. I did.

[00:20:41.770] - Big Rich Klein

So what was— what made you decide to go down there to Ben Hanks Racing and ask for a job? Was it just you wanted more knowledge, or, you know, you thought it might be a good way to get yours built out, or what was it?

[00:20:58.940] - Thomas Meiser

So I think what happened is, as I was building that Samurai, I told you my dad was starting to get involved and wanting to start building Jeeps again, or at least get a Jeep for himself, right? Right. So we ended up picking up like a TJ, a Rubicon, two-door Rubicon or something like that. Well, in his running around town and stuff, he ended up stopping at Ben Hanks and talking to Ben and seeing the shop and wanted to get some work done. Well, my dad passed the word to me, was like, hey, there's a new shop. So that's what kicked me off to go to Ben's. Um, I think I was— I want to say I was like 19, 20 years old. I walked in there, you know, and was forward with him and said, I don't know what I'm doing, but I love this shit.

[00:21:49.000] - Big Rich Klein

That's the first step, man. You gotta, you gotta love that. You gotta love it.

[00:21:54.930] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah. And, you know, I got a— he gave me a chance to work there and I just really soaked it in and learned a lot. There were some guys there that were just amazing fabricators. I think we've actually, unfortunately, lost a couple of them through the years, but really cool guys. And there was a guy there named Red Bradshaw, and he used to have like a 2-foot mohawk. I used to think he was the coolest dude. But he's hands down literally the dude that showed me how to weld. He showed me how to weld and put a bead down correctly. And I don't know how many people I've told that since, but that's where it kind of started for me really, is just having the opportunity to work for Ben and learn a lot of stuff from those guys, you know. And I mean, even back then when I mean, I feel like they were ahead of their time in a way. They were building tuber cars, you know, and four links, and they were right there in the mix with everybody.

[00:23:02.060] - Big Rich Klein

So, so what was the first thing they had you doing? Was it sweeping floors and, and being kind of the, the all-around kid to help?

[00:23:12.590] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, in a sense I was kind of a grunt. Um, just kind of helped everybody at first, kind of learned some things, and then I think I got put on like cutting brackets off axles, learning how to run the torch, and learning how to run a grinder correctly. Um, so believe it or not, there's a correct way to run those grinders, you know. Oh yeah, so you don't die.

[00:23:36.040] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, remove body parts.

[00:23:38.750] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, and knock on wood, as long as I've been doing this, I've like literally haven't had stitches. I haven't had any kind of medical injury at all doing Yes. Wow. Knock on wood. Yeah, I've kept my hair out of the mix and everything. That's amazing.

[00:23:54.400] - Big Rich Klein

Kind of crazy. And what was, uh, what was the thing? I mean, did you have a time in high school that was— or shop classes? Did you participate in anything like that, or was it just all of a sudden, you know, we're working on this personal Samurai? And that's where you picked it up.

[00:24:15.180] - Thomas Meiser

That's literally how it started. We did have a shop class in high school, um, and going back to the whole school scene for me, you know, I, I enjoyed school. I don't think I was like inundated in schoolwork. I think I was more there for the, the chill and the baseball kind of thing, right? Um, I even had a couple of my teachers, they even like slipped me, slid me through class with good grades even though I was either sleeping or making jokes, you know?

[00:24:47.600] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:24:48.660] - Thomas Meiser

So that was kind of cool, but I think it was just kind of based on how I played ball, you know? I was— I don't tell a lot of people and I haven't even talked about it for years and years, but I was a hell of a baseball player. Cool.

[00:25:05.980] - Big Rich Klein

Cool.

[00:25:06.560] - Thomas Meiser

Hoping to catch a softball team soon.

[00:25:09.270] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that'd be great. I played, uh, I didn't play. I spent my, my youth, especially during the summers and the spring when baseball's really going, um, water skiing and camping and backpacking and things like that. So I never, my dad, my dad said basically, do you want to go water skiing and hang out at the lake or do you want to stay home and play baseball? And I was like, oh, let's go to the lake. Totally. But when we, when I got older and especially when I went to college, it was like, okay, let's, let's go do this. And, uh, decided to play, um, softball and first started on a co-ed team and then, uh, jumped into an open division, you know, high level. Where we traveled and played guys that showed up in busses, you know, with proper uniforms and stuff like that when I was in college. But I went to college for photography, so it wasn't like— oh wow, there was no athletics, there was nothing like that. It was just a bunch of us that, that had an interest in photography but went— but, you know, also were, were sports-minded, and we needed that outlet as well because there's no kind of outlet like that when you're doing photography.

[00:26:25.460] - Big Rich Klein

You know, yeah, no doubt. But I loved playing that, that open division, um, softball. It was more like times like playing football, but there was a lot of contact in it for being a baseball game.

[00:26:42.480] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, most definitely.

[00:26:45.210] - Big Rich Klein

So then working at Ben Hanks, does that, uh, You work through it, you get your, your skill level up, you're doing all these different things. What was a turning point for you when you said, okay, this is what I want to spend my life doing?

[00:27:01.070] - Thomas Meiser

Um, it was kind of funny. So I ended up working there. I think we— I think I worked there for 2 years, or it was just over a year and a half. Um, and in that time, you know, we built some really cool tuber. We built Ben specifically, we built him a car and I got to put a lot of work into that car. It was a green one. He built it for the XRR Racing. Yes. So that was super cool. And I think it was about the first year it kicked off and it was really cool. So we got the car done and I got to go to Moab with Ben and a couple of the guys from the shop and we had 2 or 3 rigs we just finished. So we went and tested them. So not only did I get to work and get the experience around the equipment and all the cool projects, I got the experience of going out and seeing what the hell these guys did.

[00:27:58.150] - Big Rich Klein

Were you at that, um, XRA race, the first one where it was snowed in in Moab?

[00:28:03.360] - Thomas Meiser

I was, yeah. Okay, yeah, I was there too. Yep. Okay, yeah, yeah. And so we get to do that, and then the next one we did was the one down in Cortez, Colorado. Right. So we went to that one and I got to meet, you know, along the, along the roads of this, I got to meet some other people. Right. And like I got to meet Randy Rod back then with Jimmy's 4x4 during that race. Total skater dude. Total skater dude. Cool dude. So that was really cool. And then when we got back, long story short, you know, the shop ended up getting shut down or whatever happened there. And so I was out of a job. But the problem was, is I fell in love with this stuff. Right? Right. And there wasn't any other shops at the time. So I ended up going I ended up enrolling in college after that, so I ended up getting us— what do they call it? Um, I ended up getting— it's not a scholarship. Help me out here, Rich. Um, grant, scholarship, um, where you go to work for them and they send you to school.

[00:29:29.730] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. It's a work program.

[00:29:31.140] - Thomas Meiser

I forget the term, but yeah. So I ended up getting a job at Caterpillar Machinery where my dad worked previously. He ended up— my dad was a big part of helping me along the lines of all this, if you can't tell, but kind of setting stones for me to jump on. But he ended up letting me know about this program that Caterpillar was having, that you could come and work for them. They'll send you to diesel school and you graduate in a year and a half and you have a job. So I went and gave that a valid effort and I was working at Caterpillar Machinery in the internship. There we go. That's the word. Intern. Yeah. So while I worked at Caterpillar, they would send you through each department for 6 months. So I worked in chassis department tearing down big heavy dozers. Then I went and worked in the transmission department for 6 months and tore apart transmissions the size of Civics. Pretty big stuff, you know. And then I worked in the paint department, and when I got into the weld department, I fell in love again. I was like, man, this is really where I need to be, is just under a hood.

[00:30:45.710] - Thomas Meiser

Um, so long story short, with all of that, they were only paying me like It was like $10 an hour to work through the night and then go to school in the morning and do that, right? And so as good as the offer of an internship was, I wasn't being able to afford gas to get to work after school and this and that. So just like any young man, I went chasing work, right? And I got my foot in the door at a heavy metal like a structural steel place, building I-beams and just big heavy stuff. I was welding 40-foot columns and a bunch of knife plates. It would take me 10 hours to weld one beam out. And I did that for like 2 years. And it was a swing shift. So I was working through the night, 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM. And just really buckled down and tried to grind and do work, you know, and I was just never kind of happy with it. So I ended up— the whole time this was going on, I knew about Midnight 4x4 with JC. And so while I was doing this structural steel stuff, I ended up making a swing into the shop with Randy and JC in Salt Lake, Midnight 4x4.

[00:32:09.820] - Thomas Meiser

Kind of poked my head in there, and I think JC just opened up his fab shop previously to that few months. So I just went in there and asked if they were hiring and was able to get a job at midnight, 4x4. So that was really cool.

[00:32:26.170] - Big Rich Klein

And you continued, that was, how long was that program?

[00:32:32.130] - Thomas Meiser

The scholarship program or the internship program was for a year and a half. And I fell short. I didn't actually end up graduating it. I was like 4 months short of graduating and having a job at Caterpillar, but That's just kind of not where I seen myself. So I just kept moving and I ended up getting a job at Midnight 4x4, like I said. And then I was back in the swings of, you know, building cages and the off-road scene again.

[00:33:03.640] - Big Rich Klein

And how long were you at Midnight?

[00:33:06.700] - Thomas Meiser

Let's see, I was there for a little over a year and a half, almost 2 years. At midnight with JC. And, um, what kind of—

[00:33:19.350] - Big Rich Klein

what kind of— how, how did your skill set improve there, um, along the way? Or did it— did everything come naturally?

[00:33:29.060] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, I mean, when I was working at Ben Hanks, kind of where I learned how to measure and bend tube, um, and I've always been an artist, Big Ridge. So ever since I was a little boy, I've been drawing vehicles on paper. Um, with pen, pencil, all kinds of different, um, ways. But I've always just had like an artistic background, and so that just kind of played a huge part into building cars for me because it almost became like a way of expressing my art versus building a vehicle in my head, you know? Right. Okay. And so when I got a job at Midnight 4x4. Oh man, there's so much to the story, but I ended up getting time. So the, the structural steel job I was working at previously to Midnight, they had a little 4x4 burn table, um, and they never used it, and I always asked why, and they, they said they just never could figure out how to use it or such and such. So then I further working at Midnight 4x4, JC ended up having that same table. So JC taught me how to use the burn table that he had, and then JC also got a Bentec Dragon tube cutter.

[00:34:48.030] - Thomas Meiser

So that's kind of where I've learned to use that as well. So I've picked up skills along the ways that's kind of helped me do what I'm doing now, you know, but Um, when I, when I ended up leaving JC's, that's when I left. I left JC's and started my own thing, which is 7801. So, and that was in 2018. Okay. But with, with all the jobs I've had, it just kind of led me to this, you know. So when, when I went on my own, I was able to go back to that structural steel place and I bought their table, the burn table, from them. And I already knew how to use it because of JC. Right. Um, and then, yeah, I ended up, I ended up building myself a buggy, the OG Lizard, and I took it to Moab, and I just had a bunch of people that wanted to buy it from me, and I told them no, but I'd build them one. And that's kind of how it started for me.

[00:35:45.710] - Big Rich Klein

And when you, when you first started on your own that way, where And were you at JC's when people wanted to start buying, start buying your buggy and you said you could build them, or had you moved on to your own place?

[00:36:03.150] - Thomas Meiser

So let's see, when I was working at JC's, I was living in Harriman. I had a place in Harriman and I had a little like 2-car garage. And previously to working at JC's, I was trying to— that first Samurai that I was building I was like, it ended up being a kind of a long-term build. Um, when I worked at Ben Hanks, I ended up buying a Toyota and one-ton swapping it and doing like a F-Toy style cage on it at Ben's when I worked there. Okay. And once I left Ben's, the Toyota was a '22 R, and I was always broke, so I never had money to build anything I wanted, right? Right. So I had this 1-ton Toyota, but it had a 22R in it. And so I would try to take it out to Five Mile and Little Moab, and it just never— I could never get anywhere with it, right? It was just always a clunker or always needed something else or something was broke or— so it was just a constant project. And I think that's how a lot of guys' rigs turn into, but So I'm trying to think.

[00:37:19.760] - Thomas Meiser

So when I was at JC's, I had a guy come to me outside of JC's and had two vehicles. He wanted a Samurai built with like a 4.3 twin turbos, one tons, and a bunch of framework. Well, JC's shop was kind of little and packed, if you would. I mean, he was had so much work in there, he didn't know what to do with it at the time. Right. And I was just the fabricator welder there. And so, like, I would catch all the welding and fabricating up, but then there was cars getting left with that needed tranny swaps and engine work and wiring. And I didn't do none of that. So, you know, a lot of these projects ended up lingering there for a while. But anyways, I ended up taking on a side job for a guy. He wanted me to build a Samurai and a CJ-6 on one ton. So that was kind of where I got on my own, is this guy, you know, he ended up paying me to build these two vehicles and it was enough to kind of make it sense to go on my own and do it.

[00:38:32.640] - Thomas Meiser

And then, you know, he told me he would line me up with some work for like a year and a half, two years to get me on my feet. Um, so when I left JC's, I was working for myself, and I didn't even have the name Fabbing yet. I was just kind of seeing if it would even work, you know? Right. So I took on these two jobs for these guys, for this guy, ended up getting those done. While I was doing that is when I started building my first buggy. Okay. So I finished my buggy. I built it in like It was like 5 months. I knocked it out, built it, and then we went to Moab and just immediately had like 2 or 3 guys that wanted it, you know. And I was fortunate.

[00:39:18.000] - Big Rich Klein

At that point you just said, I should do this on my own, and then stepped away from JC's?

[00:39:23.930] - Thomas Meiser

Yep. So at that point I basically, you know, I had 3 guys that were serious and wanted chassis. So I told them if they gave me some money, I'd build them one and Sure shit, they gave me money. So we got busy and I started building chassis in my two-car garage. And it was kind of cool because JC knew what I was doing. I left there, you know, and he had support. It was really cool. And then when I got, you know, I kind of made it known that I was building chassis. So I was kind of not selling any for a minute, if I'm going to be serious. And I was unemployed, doing it for myself with big dreams, right? And so I put these chassis out there for like $3,000. Well, I didn't sell anything in like a month, and I, I really needed to figure something out or I was going to look for work, right? So I cut the prices in half, the rich. I was selling chassis for $1,500.

[00:40:27.790] - Big Rich Klein

So basically the cost of materials?

[00:40:30.260] - Thomas Meiser

Basically the cost of materials, you know. I think the first 20 chassis I sold were for $1,500. Wow. Yeah. So when I dropped the price in half, I ended up having, you know, 5 or 6 people buy a chassis. You know, I even had a guy buy 2. And I was like, wow, this is cool, you know, and didn't really know what I was doing. I was no business expert or, you know, I was just starting to grow my hair out, so everybody looked at me like I was a weirdo anyways. So here we are, you know. So I ended up getting a grip of money, you know, on the sales that I had. And so I went to JC knowing he had a Tube Dragon. I said, hey JC, I've got— I'm building these chassis, blah, blah, blah, blah. Do you mind cutting them? So He ended up starting to cut my chassis for me, which was really cool. Um, and it just got to the point where I sold enough and was able to put enough in the bank that I was able to buy my own Dragon and kind of really get on my own at that point.

[00:41:38.880] - Big Rich Klein

So when did you move out of the garage?

[00:41:43.100] - Thomas Meiser

So I stayed, I ended up staying in Herriman That's— and as soon as I bought the Dragon, that's kind of when I got serious. I came up with the name Fab'n 801. The way I came up with the name is through the years of building stuff, when I would be in the garage, people would call me, hey, what are you doing? And I'd tell them, I'm fab'n, I'm in the shop fab'n, fabricating, right? And so that just really stuck with me, and when I decided to pick a name for the company, that's just kind of how that stuck. And then obviously 801 is just from Salt Lake, the area code, right? I thought it sounded really good together. Um, and since then there's been a lot of really fun— people ask what Fabian stands for. Stands for fabrication. But there's been some really fun ones, people coming up with things that stands for, you know, you can imagine. But So, and then, yeah, you were a huge part of this for me too, Rich, whether you know it or not. But you had WE Rock going. Yep. Um, clear back in— let's see, my dad was always an advocate, rock crawler.

[00:42:57.250] - Thomas Meiser

I mean, not rock crawler, just off-roader, right? And so he started dragging us to WE Rocks. I think the— there was a couple at RME. On the man-made stuff. So when we were living in Magna, we would come over and watch you guys' event. And I mean, that just has always stuck in my head, right? And that was kind of like the reason of building a rock crawler or going rock crawling is to be able to compete one day, you know. And I've fortunately got to be able to do that a little bit with you guys, and it was been really fun, but I'm hoping to do it more. In the future.

[00:43:35.490] - Big Rich Klein

So when you made the decision to move the shop to Parowan, was that a big leap of faith, or were things moving pretty good at that point?

[00:43:49.730] - Thomas Meiser

Um, so I was in Herriman, 2-car garage, and we were doing our thing. My dad always told me, don't ever move until you blowing at the seams, right? You try to stay put as long as you can, you know, and save money. But so anyways, I stayed in the two-car garage for about a year and a half. The problem I was running into is I was in a residential area and I was starting to get to the point where I was having tube delivered, and so I was having a semi-truck come into the neighborhood And so now my neighbors are starting to question things, um, and at that point Harriman was just starting to blow up and develop, which it's unreal what it looks like out there now.

[00:44:37.200] - Big Rich Klein

But so you, you, you started to get the Karens moving in?

[00:44:41.700] - Thomas Meiser

We got the Karens moving in. We kind of got pushed out by the city, um, and they, you know, so that made it real hard on me. So what I ended up having to do is find another shop And I went from Herriman to finding a shop in Tremont, clear north of Utah. So I ended up moving all my stuff up to a shop in Tremont. We landed there and we just kept carrying on and building chassis. And I was building rollers for guys at the time. It was kind of crazy. I ended up moving like 2 project roller projects on trailers. Man, I don't even know how I did all that, but we landed in Tremont and I've never spent any time in Tremont. We kind of went on a limb and found a shop that was something I could afford at the time. And we landed up there and after being there for, I think I was there for 6 to 7 months. And I had my rock crawler at the time, the OG Lizard. I was trying to find somewhere to wheel. While we were living there, and there was nothing within 200 miles of that place to go wheeling.

[00:45:55.870] - Thomas Meiser

And so it absolutely killed the vibe, you know. It's— you can't sit here and build rock crawlers and not be able to look outside and see rocks, you know. It just doesn't make sense in my head. So I had a customer when I was living in Harriman building cars. He came to me and looked at the chassis and He ended up letting me know, hey, if you ever run into an issue, I've got a shop in Parowan. And I never even thought about it, Rich, until after the Tremonton shop. I ended up running into a couple of problems with the landlord there. And so we needed to make another move, you know. So I ended up calling my customer up and asking if he still had the shop in Parowan. And he told me he did and this and that. And so we made another leap of faith overnight, packed all of our stuff up. I had 4 trucks with trailers and then I had a 30-foot farm truck and we just all caravaned all the way down with our stuff. And I landed at the shop. By the time I paid his first month and last month's rent and paid all my guys to help me, and we ate one last time.

[00:47:08.210] - Thomas Meiser

I had like $25 to my name. That's motivation. So we landed here, and at the time I was married, I had a wife. And so that helped, you know, I have a partner and we both landed here. We looked at each other and we're like, well, I guess we got to just keep going. So that was 7 years now. So I've been here 7 years in Paraguay. And probably one of the best moves I think I've made in life, right?

[00:47:41.790] - Big Rich Klein

Sometimes that happens, you know, you— everything, you go down to, to almost nothing, but you've got the skill set, so, you know, you just keep at it. I mean, because you love it, right?

[00:47:56.290] - Thomas Meiser

And, and that's what really drives it for me. I have a lot of people, um, it definitely hasn't been easy the last 8 years. I've had a lot of I tell a lot of people, um, good thing I like rock crawling, right? Because business is like rock crawling. It is just obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. So if you can't— if you don't like obstacles, you definitely don't want to go into business for yourself, right?

[00:48:20.320] - Big Rich Klein

Because you could have made a lot more money probably in the long run working at Caterpillar.

[00:48:25.900] - Thomas Meiser

Totally, totally, you know.

[00:48:29.180] - Big Rich Klein

But you wouldn't have loved life like you do.

[00:48:31.980] - Thomas Meiser

I wouldn't have loved life, right? I would have wore the same coveralls and the same old boots and worked with the same 5 guys my whole life, you know? And that's kind of not— that's not where I seen myself. So we just kept moving forward and it's been really fun. At this point now, I've got, you know, 15 different chassis. We've got chassis that look like Toyotas, we've got chassis that look like Samurais, we've got them that work for Jeeps, and it's been really fun to be able to create different vehicles on other people's suggestions, you know. I'm really open-minded. I've heard there's a lot of builders that won't build what you want, and they have one way to do it, you know, and we're kind of different here. You know, I'm open to build just about any— anything someone can imagine if it makes sense, you know. Right.

[00:49:24.370] - Big Rich Klein

And you're not charging $1,500 a chassis now, right? No. Okay, because you have to— I mean, people have to understand, you know, you can't be in business by giving stuff away for free.

[00:49:38.240] - Thomas Meiser

Yes, that's exactly it. Um, and I've kind of learned everything the hard way, if I'm going to be honest, with business. You know, I've, I've done a lot of charity stuff, I've tried to help a lot of people out. Um, which was probably bad business moves, but in my head it was good marketing, um, and, and friendship building, you know. I've met a lot of really cool people, um, and I've never really expected to get rich doing this. This isn't— that was never my goal. My, my goal is to build as many cars as I can before I die and, and to do something that you love doing and do something I love to do, you know. I think we just passed I just— we just cleared 5,000 chassis since 2018. Holy shit.

[00:50:24.700] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's incredible. So that's incredible.

[00:50:27.800] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, there's 5— I've got, I've got 7 chassis in Australia, I've got 2 in Italy, I've got 1 in— or like several in Canada, I've got several in Mexico, I've got 1, 1 in Guam, believe it or not. Wow. I've got a full Toyota-based buggy in Guam. Built the whole car, disassembled it, put it in a container and shipped it to a, uh, Marine, a US Marine in Guam, and he's got it out on the base there. It's pretty cool. That's awesome. So that's kind of my end goal, is just really just see how many cars we can build.

[00:51:02.910] - Big Rich Klein

So what was the first event you, you came out and competed at? The first Was it Cedar or did you do like the old school rock crawl first?

[00:51:12.910] - Thomas Meiser

I've done a couple of the Delta stuff. I think you guys, you guys don't always do that, right? You guys didn't always do Delta.

[00:51:20.480] - Big Rich Klein

I took over for Craig Stump. He did the old school and then, okay, and then we changed the name when we took it over to Delta Classic Rock Crawl.

[00:51:28.730] - Thomas Meiser

DC, that's right, because I was playing off of the AC/DC thing.

[00:51:33.070] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I remember. And Then, and then now, um, now it's running— I think they're still calling it Delta Classic. I—

[00:51:44.970] - Thomas Meiser

they are, I believe so. Yeah, it was actually just this last weekend.

[00:51:48.100] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, Ryan and Nate. Yeah.

[00:51:49.930] - Thomas Meiser

Uh-huh. Okay. So that was my first event ever with you, Rich, was that, that specific event. And I was actually in my Blue Samurai prior to my first tube car. Okay. Um, so I was in a little Blue Samurai all tubed out, which is kind of funny, was the same Samurai I wrecked when I was 16. I finally got it built and done.

[00:52:15.780] - Big Rich Klein

And then you went out and rock crawled it competitively.

[00:52:19.330] - Thomas Meiser

And then we went and competitively— yep, then we went and rock crawled it at Delta. Um, and I did really pretty good for my first event. Um, I think what more about it for me was the experience and the fun I had and really made me want to do it more, you know, and made me want to chase it more. So that was really cool. It kind of added some fire in my ass, if you would, right?

[00:52:43.550] - Big Rich Klein

And, and a lot of that is everybody out there, or most everybody out there, is like-minded, you know. They all have a love for the sport. Um, they're, they're all good people. It's just a great big family.

[00:53:00.620] - Thomas Meiser

Yes, it really is. That's probably one of the biggest things I could say about the off-road community is just the, the group of people, good people, right? It's not an easy sport to be in. I mean, you've got to have a truck, you got to have a trailer, you've got to have some tools, you gotta have some knowledge. There's a lot of stuff that's involved to be there. Which I think makes the crowd to hang out with better because we're all— we all know what it takes to get there, you know? Right. And like, I've always— I've always said it since I've been wheeling, but like, I don't even care what vehicle you show up in. If you show up, dude, you're cool because I know what it takes to get out here to try to beat your car up, you know? Right.

[00:53:44.380] - Big Rich Klein

It's not easy, you know. I, I don't— I've never been one to build a car. I don't have the skills and I know that. And I don't have, I don't have, I don't, I don't feel I have ever had the time or the money to learn. Totally. And that's why I ended up becoming an event promoter was because friends in, down in Cedar City were, you know, back in the late '90s that I wheeled with were all, you know, building things and rock crawling competitive scene started. And we were all talking about, oh yeah, let's drive and spot and do all this stuff and we'll build. And I looked at it and said, well, you know, I, I know what I think would work, but I don't have the welding skills. I don't have, you know, the money to, you know, dump $20,000 into, into trying to build, you know, hack something together. Right. So I said, you know, I, and I think I might have a better chance of at least breaking even as an event promoter. Right. So when I moved back from, from Cedar City to Northern California, it was like, all right, let's, uh, let's, let's start this thing and, and, you know, get the rock crawling off the ground.

[00:54:59.110] - Big Rich Klein

And, and then I got hooked. I mean, I knew I was gonna get hooked anyway because I'd helped with the ARCA events, you know, that Ranch Pratt was putting on. And then, you know, okay, Craig Stump started UROC. And then it all, everybody, you know, was fighting for drivers and locations and schedules. And then everybody, you know, guys started, other promoters started falling off, you know, not continuing to do it. But I think they had a different mindset. You know, I did it because I loved it and I didn't want to work for somebody else.

[00:55:31.680] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah. So that's what drove it.

[00:55:33.760] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And I just stuck to it and, you know, no matter if I made money or not. You know, as long as I could get to the event site and get home, that's all that mattered. We're rolling.

[00:55:45.150] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, I love that.

[00:55:46.770] - Big Rich Klein

And there's times when I was at the event, you know, on a Friday going, wow, if we don't have more cars show up or sell spectator tickets, I'm not getting home.

[00:55:55.240] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, we're not going to make it.

[00:55:56.610] - Big Rich Klein

We're going to be sitting out here at this park or, you know, at this, you know, down in Johnson Valley or wherever we're putting the event on. And I just— yeah, having to sit here for a couple of months and go find a job. Yeah, that's no doubt. But luckily it worked out. But I, I've always, I've always felt that myself, instead of trying to build it, I know what I want. If I've got, you know, I'm going to take something like I do now with, with the Jeeps or the, or the Raptor, I take it to people that, you know, that's their profession. Yeah, I don't want— totally. First time I tried to weld something, it was I made a bumper and I put it on a Dodge D50 that I had, four-wheel drive, that I used to bash around, um, all over Cedar City. And I tried to pull a friend's, um, diesel Ford out. I don't even know if they called it a Power Stroke then. But anyway, I tried to pull out his 1-ton and I got a running start with the strap. And after about a quarter of a mile, I figured I must have pulled him out.

[00:57:04.800] - Big Rich Klein

And I look back and the strap is laying there on the ground and my bumper is at the end of the strap and his truck is still in the mud puddle. I never even felt it come off. Oh shoot. And I went, okay, this is not what my future is.

[00:57:19.480] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, this ain't what I'm doing. That's funny, dude. So what's— and I was just, I was just sitting here thinking, man, it's kind of crazy being 15 years old watching a WE Rock. During that time, I watched a yellow samurai with flames go up the freaking mountain, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Dean Bullock. Yep. And here we are, I don't know how many years later, but I finally was able to be a title sponsor at the Cedar City WE Rock this year, which was super cool. That's awesome. And I've got to wheel with that old boy Dean Bullock the last 2, 3 years, which has been really freaking cool. So, you know, full circle from the beginning of my off-road liking or career. It's just really cool to kind of look back and see like, holy cow, I've almost come full circle, you know.

[00:58:13.830] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So what do you, what do you see for the future? Do you have, uh, do you have a, a exit strategy, or do you just plan on being fabbing until, you know, somebody— yeah, there's dirt in your face?

[00:58:28.850] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, um, I've got a 5-year plan. We've always got goals here. Um, I'm currently at a shop in Paraguay, as you know. Um, we just made some big moves about 6 months ago. I just bought I sold my, my current buggy was a 1-ton V6 car. Um, it was super fun car, but I ended up selling that to invest in some property for Fabian. So we just bought 5 acres out by the Gap in Parowan. Oh, nice. Yeah, so it's surrounded by BLM. I've got 6, I've got like 6 or 7 canyons within a quarter mile from where I'm gonna try to break dirt and build a new fab and shop, which I'll be able to call my own. So once we land there, you know, I plan on doing another 10 years there and building some cars. I've got some really cool stuff I'm working on and trying to design. Again, it always comes down to money, you know. If I had fatter pockets, deeper pockets, I'd probably be coming out with some stuff sooner, but until I find an investor or, you know, hit that lottery ticket, right?

[00:59:42.700] - Big Rich Klein

You need somebody to come in and, and say, hey, I got $200,000, build me a badass buggy. Yes, I do.

[00:59:49.430] - Thomas Meiser

And then build it for $40,000. Yep. Yeah, and that's the thing, um, it's, it's crazy. Yeah, building cars, you know, it I've been building them for so long, it just seems like putting shoes on for me. So these guys are asking, you know, I can't believe what guys charge for buggies. It's just crazy. But, but, um, that's how they stay. That's where it's at. That's how they're staying in business. Yep. So, um, along this whole timeline, I've been into RC rock crawling. Cool. Um, my first RC car I got was 15 when I was 15. It was an MOA, which is motor on axle, which is an electric motor that's attached to your axle, right? And you have one independently front and rear. You don't have 4 motors. You ain't— we're not doing any like— we're not doing agriculture stuff. But, um, anyways, I've been working on a set of axles that are going to be along the lines of those, which, um, got CAD drawings, I've got all the things. I basically just comes down to needing the money, Rich, really, to invest into it. But I think it would be a really cool thing.

[01:01:05.770] - Thomas Meiser

And then I'm also along playing with those RC cars. It's kind of funny and sounds super nerdy, but, um, there's a lot of guys out there that will get it. There's a lot of things with the RC cars that relate to the real life stuff. Suspension, weight distribution, and the way the car moves, right? And so I've been studying these RC cars for several years now. I've put, I don't know, couple thousand dollars in RC cars, just kind of researching and developing it, what they do and how they're built, right? And they're real futuristic. And I think that's what keeps it away from real life stuff. But currently I'm building a new car and I'm pulling a lot of this RC stuff into it. Not as far as like making it electric, but as far as like geometry, chassis design and weight distribution. Cool. So I don't believe there's anybody that's built a car like it yet. I'm super excited to drop it. We actually just dropped a YouTube video Friday kind of stoning the car and where we're at with it, so it is publicly out there now. But I'm really excited about it, to get it done and see what it'll do.

[01:02:28.800] - Big Rich Klein

Sounds awesome. So you, you really looking for an investor, a partner to come in and help, or are you—

[01:02:34.480] - Thomas Meiser

I I would, yeah. You'd entertain the thought? I would entertain the thought. I've been sole owner of the company for 8 years, and I think that might be something I'm lacking is the business side of it. Right. If I had like a money guy or a business mindset kind of guy, I think would really help me. I've never— I'm not one to ask for help, so. I'm pretty organic. The whole business we've grown so far has been pretty organic. Um, I'm just kind of riding, you know. Like I said, I'm not— I've got a bunch of big goals. Um, a business partner would be huge. Yes, right. Well, maybe how to go about that, I have no idea. Maybe somebody—

[01:03:21.540] - Big Rich Klein

yeah, maybe somebody out there will, uh, that's listening, um Yeah, we'll give you a call and entertain the thought. I mean, there, there's certainly people out there, uh, yeah, trying to find them.

[01:03:35.170] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, and that's, that's exactly it. Um, yeah, I would like to sit down with— if I could sit down with a couple guys, I think I could spin their heads enough where it makes sense. But right, well, cool.

[01:03:49.330] - Big Rich Klein

So then, um, I think that, uh, that, you know, you're— you've got your head on right about where to go and how to do it. I think that, uh, hopefully somebody gives you a call and, uh, you're able to, uh, to find that, that person to maybe help you make that next step in the business that can run the business side of things. And right, always remember though to try to keep control.

[01:04:16.180] - Thomas Meiser

Don't give up. Yes, most definitely. And most definitely good advice, Big Rich. Yeah, yeah, I think I've got— I think we've got a pretty good— we've got a solid foundation. Um, we've got a great brand. Our YouTube's continually growing. Um, you know, we just hit over like 12,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. That, that itself's a whole other business, right? Um, I've had YouTube for 5 years, but I've had several editors And so my consistency on it hasn't been great. You know, I'll go 6 months with great videos and then we'll go a year with none and then we'll go 6, 8 months with great videos and then none type of thing. Right. I do have a new employer. Her name is Chelsea Gregory. She's pretty known on Instagram as well. She's @trailhunteronline, but she does all my marketing. Website design and YouTube editing. So she's— I plan on having her— I made her sign a contract, so we got 2 years of that. So I'm hoping YouTube can— we can keep growing on YouTube where we display a lot of our builds, um, we display a lot of our adventures. We actually just did a YouTube series on WE Rock in Cedar City, really cool, watch.

[01:05:36.890] - Thomas Meiser

Um, shows a lot of action, kind of shows— I walked around the whole 2 days and showed the food vendors, the crowd, the spectators, all the drivers. And so a really good video for people to watch if you're looking to get into the sport and see what it's about. It's a great way to, to see it, you know. And what's your YouTube channel? It's just Fabian 801. Okay. So yeah, every Yep, super easy. All my social medias is just Fabinato1. I try to keep it real, real simple. No underscores, no weird dots or anything, you know.

[01:06:12.520] - Big Rich Klein

Right, that's— that is a key.

[01:06:14.790] - Thomas Meiser

That is a key. Yeah. Well, cool.

[01:06:18.110] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, you know, Thomas, I want to say thank you so much for, for coming on and sharing your life story and your goals and aspirations. And I hope that— I know you've You build great stuff. I mean, I've seen you, I've been to the shop. Um, in fact, you let us stay there and, and park the semi truck there for a while. And yes sir, when that building comes open, that's— that would be a nice shop, that size of that place.

[01:06:46.180] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, it is.

[01:06:47.790] - Big Rich Klein

I know it's hard to walk away from something like that, but having your own is, is awesome.

[01:06:52.860] - Thomas Meiser

So, well, we're, we're geared up to build the same size shop plus some. So I'm definitely— we're definitely moving up, we're never moving down. Excellent, excellent. So yeah, and I, uh, I appreciate, uh, let me come on here. I've been looking forward to doing it with you, and I love everything you've done with the sport, Rich. Well, thank you.

[01:07:15.250] - Big Rich Klein

And now Jake gets to take it over, and I get to do more of the behind-the-scenes stuff, uh, with some nonprofits and hopefully keep the sport, uh, alive and well from a different angle. So totally.

[01:07:30.820] - Thomas Meiser

Well, you do a great job at it.

[01:07:32.270] - Big Rich Klein

Just getting too damn old to jump around on those rocks anymore.

[01:07:35.060] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, yeah, it looks like Jake's, uh, motivated, hot and heavy and doing the thing.

[01:07:40.870] - Big Rich Klein

So yeah, exactly. Well, great. Thank you so much, Thomas, and, uh, I hope you all the best and the greatest of luck here coming into the future.

[01:07:53.060] - Thomas Meiser

Yeah, I really appreciate it, Big Rich.

[01:07:55.720] - Big Rich Klein

All right, well, thank you. And remember to send me a picture, and this will air actually tomorrow. Awesome.

[01:08:04.940] - Thomas Meiser

Cool, cool. I'll make sure to share it across our platforms. And again, I appreciate it and enjoy your day. Excellent. Thank you.

[01:08:11.440] - Big Rich Klein

And you, you have a great one.

[01:08:14.140] - Thomas Meiser

You too. All right. Bye-bye. Bye.

[01:08:18.980] - Big Rich Klein

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