The Road to Recovery with YouTube sensation Rory Irish on Episode 324

Rory Irish is the owner of Trail Mater and Moab Motorsports, an off-road recovery operation based in Utah. In this episode, he shares his unconventional path from surveying and pipeline welding in Colorado to becoming a YouTube sensation and industry figure.

Rory bounced between Moab, Utah and western Colorado throughout his childhood. After dropping out of high school, he earned his GED (scoring highest in Colorado that year) and spent five years as a surveyor before transitioning into construction and the oil field, where he learned welding.

Ten years ago, Rory moved back to Moab to build his recovery business, initially working at Moab 4x4 Outpost. When the original owner relocated, Rory and an investor purchased the shop, later buying out the investor in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed him toward full-time recovery work and YouTube content creation.
 
 Trail Mater evolved from a simple tow truck into a specialized off-road recovery vehicle equipped with winches, welders, and custom tools. His YouTube channel now has massive reach.
 
 Rory emphasizes that he's an off-road recovery company first, YouTube channel second. He works closely with BLM and National Park Service to minimize environmental impact and refuses to stage recoveries for views.

Transcript

[00:00:04.020] 

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.

[00:00:46.040] 

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[00:01:13.620] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week took a few years to really find his calling, but find his calling he has done. My guest is Rory Irish, the owner of Tow Mater and Moab Motorsports. Well, it's good to have you on the podcast, Rory Irish. I'm looking forward to this, this podcast and getting to know more about you before meeting you in Moab.

[00:01:40.860] - Rory Irish

Yeah, I'm excited.

[00:01:42.880] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, this will be great. So the first question I ask everybody, Rory, is where were you born and raised?

[00:01:49.540] - Rory Irish

So I was born in Moab, Utah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I haven't made it very far.

[00:01:59.760] - Big Rich Klein

You have, but you've taken Moab to a whole new level. Let's put it that way.

[00:02:07.540] - Rory Irish

Yeah, I was born in Moab and then I grew up between there and western Colorado.

[00:02:14.780] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so the western slope. And where did you primarily do you know your early years? You know, I, I, both of those areas when you grew up was pretty rural, not like it is nowadays. I, I went to—

[00:02:31.360] - Rory Irish

let me see if I can remember how this goes because it gets wild. I went to first grade in Moab. I went to second grade in Parachute, Colorado. Okay, I went to third grade, third grade through sixth grade in Glenwood Springs. And then, uh, where did I go from there? Then I went to back to Moab for a year and then back to Parachute, Colorado, and did my whole high school in Parachute, Colorado. Until they told me I was gonna need, um, at least another year of, of school. So I dropped out and got my GED and scored highest in Colorado that year. So I was the smartest dumb kid in Colorado.

[00:03:32.510] - Big Rich Klein

You know what, GEDs aren't always the, uh, that say you're dumb. It just says that you might be distracted.

[00:03:41.060] - Rory Irish

Oh, that's, that's big time what it was. So I went to, um, between my junior and senior year, I went and got a full-time job and made money and was like, oh wow, I can make my own money. And so then when I went back for my senior year, it was— I was just not interested in any of it. But I—

[00:04:04.300] - Big Rich Klein

and what was that job? Um, surveyor.

[00:04:08.280] - Rory Irish

All right, okay. Yeah, I was a, I was a surveyor. I did that for a summer job, and then I actually, after I, after I got my GED, I went back to surveying, and I did surveying for 5 years all over Western Colorado, uh, up in the Glenwood Springs, Aspen, Marble area.

[00:04:32.400] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And those early years of bouncing around in school and stuff, um, what was, what was the most memorable location and what year of, of school do you think was the most memorable for you?

[00:04:51.820] - Rory Irish

Oh, that's tough, huh? Gotta drop all these, all these deep philosophical questions on me.

[00:05:01.660] - Big Rich Klein

We got to get to know Rory. So let's do it this way. Okay, go ahead. No, no, go ahead.

[00:05:10.700] - Rory Irish

Third grade, third grade, we had reading time and you had to grab a book and sit down and read it. And I, for just stroke of luck, whatever, anyway, I picked up and read a book about the Titanic. And I still remember that because that was when my obsession with the Titanic started.

[00:05:35.220] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. I was— and you still have that obsession today?

[00:05:40.500] - Rory Irish

I know more about the Titanic than a normal person should. Right on. And are—

[00:05:49.620] - Big Rich Klein

have you gone on any big cruises?

[00:05:51.380] - Rory Irish

I have. I've gone on a couple cruises and I've gone to some of the Titanic exhibits. And stuff like that. And it was just, it was just really intriguing to me, even at a young age. It was very intriguing because it was the whole, you know, they said it was unsinkable and then it sank. And so it was that whole don't say things because, you know, everything, everything breaks, right? Yeah, no kidding.

[00:06:22.280] - Big Rich Klein

That's, that is for sure. No matter And we know that with our industry now. Exactly.

[00:06:27.530] - Rory Irish

That's what I tell everybody. I don't care what, what badge is on the front of it. Everything breaks.

[00:06:34.070] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So then, um, besides reading in third grade and, and becoming obsessed with the Titanic, did you, did you play sports at any point or were you in band or Did anything extracurricular?

[00:06:52.950] - Rory Irish

I didn't. Um, some of my teachers and some people tried to get me to play basketball because I was so tall, and I played basketball for I think one season in like 6th or 7th grade, 6th grade I think, and I just wasn't really into it. I never did sports. I never did any of that. I was, I was, I was just never into it like that. I was, I was big into my, my bicycles and my dirt bikes. And then when I got my license, I never looked back. It was all dirt bikes or trucks or cars or stuff like that. Okay, that has always been my obsession.

[00:07:45.050] - Big Rich Klein

The, the moving from, you know, Moab to Parachute to Glenwood Springs to Moab to Parachute, was that, was that because of parents looking, you know, not following jobs, or—

[00:07:59.480] - Rory Irish

yeah, what my mom did, it was, it was very— so the reason we left Moab was because my parents split up, and so then my mom moved me up to Colorado And I was up there and then I would move back to Moab to live with my grandparents because, you know, I was a rebellious teen that knew everything. And yeah, I don't know.

[00:08:30.050] - Big Rich Klein

And the grandparents were more grounding?

[00:08:32.030] - Rory Irish

No, they were more, this is the way it is and you're going to do what we say. And And it was very, it was very interesting. Like I said, looking back on it, I don't know how nobody broke my neck, but I'm very glad they didn't. But so then I would go back to Moab and then I would come back to— we actually were— I was living in Glenwood for a long time. My mom was working up there and then I went back to Moab with my grandparents And then she actually came down with me because she was thinking about moving down there if it was better for me, and it wasn't. So we actually went back to Colorado to parachute because my sister was living there and she had a place for us to stay till we got our own place.

[00:09:26.960] - Big Rich Klein

So your, your sister is much— you're much younger Yeah, you're the youngest child.

[00:09:33.360] - Rory Irish

I, I am the middle child. I have two older sisters with my mom and two younger sisters with my dad. Okay, interesting. Yeah, yeah. I was— when I would— when I was at school during the year, I was picked on as the baby when I was at my mom's house. And then when I went down to Moab for the summer to hang out at my grandparents' house, I was the oldest brother and I could pick on my little sisters. So I got kind of both sides of that coin.

[00:10:08.180] - Big Rich Klein

Do you find yourself protective of women because of that? I do.

[00:10:15.080] - Rory Irish

My whole life has been like, I had my mom, my grandma, my 4 sisters, my aunts. I was— I used to joke and tell everybody that I'm just amazed I don't wear a dress.

[00:10:32.790] - Big Rich Klein

That's a sight I don't want to see.

[00:10:36.540] - Rory Irish

But it did, it did make me very, very protective of women and very, very oriented on that. And I've, I've always been a huge proponent. Like, there used to be in western Colorado, there used to be, uh, Crawlin' for a Cure, and they would put events on and it was for breast cancer awareness. And I think one or two years I was the only one that took all girls as drivers, like, because it was anything to get women into the sports and into the motorsports and stuff like that. And it's even, it's even bigger now that I have a daughter. I'm even more focused on, on, you know, making sure that women are aware that they're very welcome in this sport, in any sport. Right.

[00:11:26.420] - Big Rich Klein

That's great. That's great. So you talked about being into bicycles and motorcycles and anything with motors and stuff. Did you like race BMX or did you— was it just, you know, just riding around?

[00:11:40.800] - Rory Irish

It was mostly just riding around, a way to get around. But I had a go-kart. I had a Sears and Roebuck go-kart that my parents bought the year before I was born. And I actually sold it when I was 17. And I did a bunch of stuff, like it had a 3.5 horsepower Tecumseh motor on it. And then I worked mowing yards for one, one year, for one summer, and bought a 5 horsepower Briggs and Stratton rototiller and pulled the motor off of it and put it onto my go-kart to make it go faster.

[00:12:21.500] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:12:22.350] - Rory Irish

So yeah, it's always been a thing that I've been into.

[00:12:26.350] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty awesome. Do you remember what your first motorcycle was?

[00:12:29.710] - Rory Irish

My first motorcycle was like, oh man, that was like an '82 YZ125.

[00:12:37.990] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. That's more of just straight dirt bike. Yeah. Was it licensed or did you just ride? No, it was all so.

[00:12:47.080] - Rory Irish

Up in Glenwood and Parachute, they had a bunch of back roads and dirt tracks and all this stuff that you could just take off from your house, go out over and ride and just go wherever you wanted. And yeah, I did dirt bikes through most of my 20s. I mean, from when I was, when I was probably 15 or 16, I had a few off and on and then I went down to the to the Yamaha dealership and bought one when I was 19 and rode that through most of, most of my 20s was all dirt bikes.

[00:13:27.400] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And did your friends— did you have a lot of friends you hung out with back in Parachute and stuff that, that did the same thing?

[00:13:35.330] - Rory Irish

We had our own little group that went down. We used to, we used to ride all week up in Parachute And then whoever got off work first on Friday would get all the bikes cleaned and loaded and ready to go. And then we'd take off for the weekend and go to Grand Junction and just ride all weekend out in Grand Junction.

[00:13:55.620] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, awesome. What about wintertime? Because wintertime in that area is, is not dirt bike friendly.

[00:14:04.300] - Rory Irish

No, I, I think when I was like 27, 27 or 28, I bought a couple snowmobiles and tried that. And did that a little bit and wasn't really my thing. I had fun for a couple of seasons and when my, my side or my snowmobile broke, I was just done. I was like, well, screw it. I've been really bad about that my whole life. I'll get something and I'm super focused on it and I'm having a great time with it. And then as soon as it gives me an issue, I just find something else.

[00:14:43.190] - Big Rich Klein

Does that include people or just machines?

[00:14:46.250] - Rory Irish

Uh, I want to say, I want to say just machines, but I've been married 3 times, so, so maybe that's, uh, yeah, okay. I like that. I, I just never like— if, if it got, if it got snowy or muddy or anything like that, we just take the trucks out.

[00:15:07.300] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And what was the first, uh, what was your first automobile, truck or car, whatever?

[00:15:13.390] - Rory Irish

Uh, my very first was a 1975 Dodge D100 two-wheel drive pickup.

[00:15:21.150] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And did it stay stock or—

[00:15:24.130] - Rory Irish

well, it was, we'd done a little work to it. Me and my stepdad actually built a motor for it and put that in there and did some rims and tires and this and that. And, you know, of course, I was, I was a high school kid, so I was polishing it up all the time. And I kept getting stuck going to school because I would take the long way to school or after school or whatever, and I'd get my truck stuck and I have to figure out how to get it out or get in trouble. Or call my stepdad and he'd come pull me out. So after I got— that was my very first truck. And then that first year I went to work making money, I bought a four-wheel drive Dodge truck and swapped all the drive— the motor and everything into it.

[00:16:20.140] - Big Rich Klein

So then, oh, you swapped the four-wheel drive stuff into the B100?

[00:16:24.300] - Rory Irish

I swapped the motor out of my two-wheel drive into the four-wheel drive because I bought it with a blown motor. And then did a bunch of work to it. And so then I could go four-wheeling and still make it to school on time. Nice. Okay.

[00:16:40.230] - Big Rich Klein

And do you think those early years of getting stuck and trying to figure out how to get yourself out kind of was a proving ground for— Oh, things. Absolutely.

[00:16:51.450] - Rory Irish

That's what I tell a lot of people is they're like, how'd you learn to do all this stuff? I was like, I did do a lot of the things I tell everybody not to do, like going four-wheeling alone. And back then there was no cell phone that you were going to call somebody with. Right. So yeah, it was— you just had to figure it out. And I've used a handyman jack and a ratchet strap a lot of times to get myself out. Right.

[00:17:22.050] - Big Rich Klein

I don't— nope, that makes sense.

[00:17:23.490] - Rory Irish

I don't recommend it, but it is possible.

[00:17:26.950] - Big Rich Klein

Right. It's a lot of work.

[00:17:30.350] - Rory Irish

Yeah.

[00:17:30.870] - Big Rich Klein

So then those, those early years, you know, you go through school, get your GED, you've got your, your Dodge trucks, that Dodge trucks, did they last you up until the surveying or?

[00:17:48.190] - Rory Irish

Yeah, I was still I was still driving my trucks to— I lived in Parachute and was driving to Glenwood for work. And so I was driving them back and forth to Glenwood. That was back when we were, we were so amazed that it was almost $2 a gallon. No, don't we wish those days were back? Right.

[00:18:12.880] - Big Rich Klein

But yeah, when I first started driving Gas was like, you know, what I can remember is like 27, 28 cents a gallon. But again, our pay, you know, I mean, I can remember working for, you know, like $2.25 or $2.65 an hour or something. Exactly.

[00:18:29.170] - Rory Irish

Yeah, it all, it all relates. I've kind of tried to wash that out of my mind. It all relates to the cost of things. Very true. Yeah, I've never been, I've never been really smart in that aspect of like having a vehicle that's fuel efficient. Like, like, here, let's have something that I drive to work and then something that I play with on the weekends. If I wasn't driving my Dodge trucks or my lifted Chevys to work, then I was driving my Trans Am because of course I had a Trans Am.

[00:19:07.380] - Big Rich Klein

You had a Trans Am?

[00:19:08.680] - Rory Irish

I had two of them. I had two of them. I had a— two of them? I had a '79 T-top Trans Am and an '84 T-top Trans Am.

[00:19:19.280] - Big Rich Klein

I gotta ask, did you have the Joe Dirt hairstyle?

[00:19:24.460] - Rory Irish

I did not. Did you?

[00:19:26.520] - Big Rich Klein

No mullet? I did not have a mullet.

[00:19:29.300] - Rory Irish

I did have very long hair with highlights. Because my sister was a beautician, so I was always the one that she would practice on. So it was very interesting.

[00:19:49.270] - Big Rich Klein

So your, your T-tops, were they modified as well, or did you mostly just keep them pretty much stock?

[00:19:57.330] - Rory Irish

Mostly just the standard high school stuff. Cut the exhaust off, put glass packs on everything, make it as loud as possible. That was, that was my whole learning experience. Like, I blew one of the motors up in my Trans Am, so I had to, I had to do that and put a new motor in it. And my stepdad, I remember my stepdad telling me, he's like, well, just so you know, like doing a motor swap for your first time, it's, it's not a weekend job. Like, I want you to be realistic. Like, don't think you're going to be driving this to work on Monday. And he's like, it might take longer, it might take a while. So I don't want you frustrated. And I was like, oh, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. And I jumped headfirst into it and had everything changed over and I had it started Sunday night and I just thought I was the most amazing mechanic in the world. And I was like, ha, you said I wasn't going to get it done. And then I think like 2 or 3 days later it broke because I overlooked something. I put together the standard issue of, you know, you tell your dad or your stepdad like, ha, you didn't think I could do it.

[00:21:15.720] - Rory Irish

And then, and then it comes back to get you after you were bragging.

[00:21:21.880] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I can remember some of those. It definitely humbled me a lot. So when you're— when you get your GED and you go and you're doing the surveying, are you commuting then in the Trans Ams or the four-wheel drive truck?

[00:21:41.400] - Rory Irish

It was either or. I had both of them at the same time. Okay.

[00:21:46.640] - Big Rich Klein

Depending on the weather, I guess.

[00:21:47.580] - Rory Irish

Yeah. So I would drive it back. Well, it was mostly dependent on which one ran at the time. I went through a lot of vehicles. I just, from driving them, like, from, from Parachute to Glenwood was like a 45-minute drive to work every day and then back. And, you know, I'm not driving anything nice or new, so It's getting worn out. It's this and that. And then it's a lot of money to put new tires on the truck, so I'll just keep them bald and then I'll buy a car.

[00:22:33.100] - Big Rich Klein

So in those early days, what was your favorite vehicle?

[00:22:37.320] - Rory Irish

My favorite vehicle was probably, probably my Trans Am. That was just a lot of fun. It was, it was something very different from what I was used to. I grew up, all my family had trucks and stuff like that. Nobody had a sports car, if you want to call that a sports car, right?

[00:23:02.580] - Big Rich Klein

So I gotta ask, was it black and gold?

[00:23:07.320] - Rory Irish

No, it wasn't. I wish it was. It was, uh, It was brown with a gold eagle on the hood. Okay.

[00:23:19.050] - Big Rich Klein

So I went to high school with a girl that got a, I graduated in 1976. So this was like 1975. Yeah. I believe she got a brand new Trans Am. Dad bought it for her. She didn't— it was all white, and I think it had a blue— no, maybe it was a black or gold, I don't remember which, um, what the, the color of the, uh, yeah, the white and blue.

[00:23:49.660] - Rory Irish

It was probably the gold. Blue was really popular.

[00:23:54.040] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, well, she, she didn't like the eagle on there, so she— or the Firebird, so she took that off, and then her and a friend taped off, and then with watercolor put a blue racing stripe on it, and then didn't like that off— didn't like that— and tried to wash it off thinking, oh, it's watercolors, it's going to come right off. Well, Dad ended up having to repaint the car, and I think they went back to an Eagle or the Firebird emblem on there. But that was a good learning curve for her. Um, luckily she came from a family that could afford things like that, but it was, uh, it was one of those things like everybody was like, are you kidding me?

[00:24:45.000] - Rory Irish

That was, that was the funny white car. That was a funny thing. My, my mom and my stepdad bought me my first truck. We went and looked at it. My dad, my stepdad, I call him my dad, but my stepdad haggled this guy down for this old Dodge farm truck. And it was that two-wheel drive truck. It had three different size tires on it. It was like— it was green with— straight out of the '70s. It was green with a yellow and orange pinstripe down the side of it. Nice. And I— we bought that. We bought it for $350, and we're driving it home, and as we're driving it home, it's dropping cylinders. Oh, and I mean, it's my first vehicle, so I'm just— I'm just— I could not be happier. And my dad and my stepdad's just like, oh, we'll get it fixed, we'll get it fixed. My mom is just shaking her head like, you just put my baby in this junk truck and he's driving it down the road. And yeah, and then I just— from then on, me and my stepdad were always working on it, fixing, upgrading, doing this, doing that.

[00:26:05.110] - Rory Irish

And I was so proud of that truck. But yeah, but it was just so funny. But I, like I said, my, my parents bought that for $350 and then I've paid for every vehicle I've had since, right? And just worked my butt off for it. And I can't— I can't even count how many vehicles I've had. I've gone through so many of them.

[00:26:34.310] - Big Rich Klein

I sat down and made a list not too long ago, and I think I was at 21 or 23.

[00:26:40.490] - Rory Irish

Oh man, that early? That would be awesome to only have that many.

[00:26:49.650] - Big Rich Klein

I didn't start going through a lot of vehicles until I was in my 20s. Um, I think when I got married I was 25 and I had a '54 Volkswagen Bug and a Datsun B210 hatchback is the vehicles that I had at that time. And then I ended up with like a Nissan, a little Nissan pickup or Datsun pickup. And then from there it was just vehicle after vehicle after vehicle after vehicle and never had anything, it seemed like, for more than 6 months to a year. I did have an early, like a '69 Dodge 4-wheel drive Adventurer. Yeah. Which was basically the same thing. It was just the long bed version of the Power Wagon.

[00:27:53.470] - Rory Irish

Yeah, the Power Wagon, the Adventure, the Club Cab. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:01.710] - Big Rich Klein

And it had a big bumper on it on the back that was a big piece of channel, like a 10-inch piece of channel. And I painted that channel black and wrote on it with white paint, just with like a 1-inch brush, Mud Mule. And then put it like an 8-inch round steel tube front bumper. So it was, it was a classic just tree smash. Yeah, you know, you couldn't hurt that. Exactly. So how did you end up, you know, surveying? What was after the surveying job?

[00:28:51.280] - Rory Irish

So I did surveying for a while, and then I started doing construction. I started running equipment and doing some utility installs, sewer pipes, water lines, that kind of stuff. And it worked out really well because I'd been a surveyor for so long. So a lot of the grade stakes and everything I could read really well. And so going into construction was just kind of a natural progression.

[00:29:33.460] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That makes sense.

[00:29:35.400] - Rory Irish

Yeah. And so I started doing that and then what did I do? Oh, it was too far to drive because having a vehicle to drive to Glenwood every day was just killing me again. So I got a job in Rifle at a trailer dealership, uh, and that's actually where I started learning how to weld. Okay. I'd had, I'd had a little buzz box that I bought and I was building little bumpers and stuff, but it was all kind of self-taught. And then I started working at that trailer dealership and I started learning like really how to weld and how to do it good and doing some fabrication and stuff like that. And then I got into the oil field.

[00:30:32.760] - Big Rich Klein

All right. And what was— what kind of job were you doing in the oil field?

[00:30:39.330] - Rory Irish

I was doing roustabout and running equipment, hooking up wells and stuff like that. And then it's just doing the random work with the oil field, all that stuff. Then I started working for this one company that I would bring my welder in, like I would use their generator and my welder and we'd start, we'd like do little projects and little stuff with. And they were like, you need to build a welding truck. They're like, if you built a welding truck, we'd use you for a lot of our welding projects. So I was like, okay. I started looking around and found a welder and found a truck and threw one together and then started— I just started doing like fences, pipe fences, replacing gates. A lot of just random oil field stuff until I finally got better with a stick welder to where I tested for pipe certifications. And then I was doing a lot of welding, a lot of pipeline welding in the, in the oil field.

[00:31:54.710] - Big Rich Klein

All over western Colorado.

[00:31:56.010] - Rory Irish

All around, mostly around Parachute, Rifle, DeBak, all up in there. And I did that for quite a few years.

[00:32:07.490] - Big Rich Klein

Then what was the next step?

[00:32:08.750] - Rory Irish

The next step right after the oil field and the welding was I moved back to Moab. I actually, I had been talking to my wife at the time about how I had a welder on my Jeep. I had that Premier Power Welder on my Jeep. And I've been doing stuff forever. Like, my buddies always called me when they were stuck out in the middle of nowhere or stuck on a trail or broke or whatever, like, hey, can you help us go get this out? So I was always getting, getting volunteered for this recovery stuff. And I was like, you know, I should move back home to Moab and do this for a job.

[00:32:57.360] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, makes sense.

[00:32:59.200] - Rory Irish

And she was like, there's no way. And she's like, you really think you could? And I was like, well, yeah, but it like, you'd have to go down and get established. It would take a long time to get— because you can't just go down and say I do recoveries, you know. You got to get a reputation, you got to get something going, you got to get started. So I actually the old owner of M4O, Steve. Steve. Steve Nance. He posted up on Facebook that he was looking for a mechanic, and I was like, there we go. I could go down, work for the off-road shop, kind of do some recoveries on the side and get things going and see if there's a market for it. And cool. And I actually, I put my resume in, didn't hear anything. So I like drove down to Moab one day randomly and like popped into the shop and was like, hey, so I put my resume in, are you guys interested? And I just kept harassing them basically. Until they called me back and they're like, you know, or Steve called me and he's like, hey, so we want to hire you.

[00:34:26.520] - Rory Irish

When can you start? I said, well, I've got to put my 2 weeks' notice in. He goes, all right, then when can you start? I said, in 2 weeks and 2 hours. Perfect. It was really, it was just, it was a really weird experience because I was all excited that I was going to move back home. You know, I had a plan. I was going to do this. And then the week before I left, my wife at the time, we were having an argument. I remember. And she was just like, well, at least next week you're leaving, so you'll be gone so I don't have to leave you. You'll just be gone. And I was like, wait, what? I was like, no, wait, you're coming with me, right? And she was like, nope, I've been waiting for you to leave so that you can just be gone. And I was like, oh. So then I, I stuck with moving to Moab because I was like, well, if I'm getting a divorce, then I don't want to stay here, right? So I moved back home to Moab, and it was kind of like It was kind of like my clean slate, like moving back home, doing something different with my life, just moving out of Colorado where I'd always been and just like, all right, I'm going to figure this out and do something different.

[00:35:55.340] - Rory Irish

And it has been absolutely the best decision of my life.

[00:36:00.490] - Big Rich Klein

How long ago was that?

[00:36:02.420] - Rory Irish

That was just at 10 years ago.

[00:36:04.890] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so you finally found your calling.

[00:36:08.730] - Rory Irish

I did. It was, it was really weird because I went, you know, I went down there and of course I was, I was going through that and then not being able to see my, my kids as much and all that. So that was kind of a, it was a very big strain. But I really, I really felt like I matured because that one was one time when I sat down and was like, okay, look, We weren't good together, so it's better for the kids if you're separate and stable than to be together and toxic, right?

[00:36:52.210] - Big Rich Klein

And yeah, that the relationships come to that point at times, and it's, it's a tough decision to make.

[00:36:59.970] - Rory Irish

Well, and I, I grew up with with separated parents. But it was a very different dynamic because all I ever heard from my mom was how horrible my dad is. And then I talked to my dad and hear how horrible my mom was. And it's like, that's not the conversation to have with a kid. True. And so I learned a lot, like I could put a lot together and go, okay, you don't say bad things about the other parent in front of the kid. Just don't do that. And so, like, like I said, a lot of my life and my younger years and all that stuff really played a part in the parent I am because I was not parented right. But it's a matter of learning from that instead of just replicating that, you know what I mean?

[00:38:05.690] - Big Rich Klein

Right, absolutely.

[00:38:06.810] - Rory Irish

Like, that's, that's a hard thing to do because you're like, well, this is the way I was taught, so that's the way I should do it. And, and being able to separate that and be like, no, this really messed with me, so I shouldn't say that to my kid, right?

[00:38:24.300] - Big Rich Klein

You know, and, and hopefully, you know, the partner that you— that we're no longer partners with, hopefully they did the same thing, but that's highly unlikely.

[00:38:36.480] - Rory Irish

Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, no, it's been very bad. It's been, it's been a rough, rough thing the whole time, but that's all right. Like I said, the biggest thing is, is, uh I, I enjoy being able to, to show that my— to show my daughter that you can be stable and you can be a good person no matter what, no matter how many bad things are going on around.

[00:39:05.740] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So you were with Steve, um, there at M40? Yeah, Moab 4x4 Outpost. Um, what was that? Was— God, that was pretty much near the end of him there in Moab, then when he decided to go to—

[00:39:25.870] - Rory Irish

yeah, it was. I'd been there for about 6 months, 6 or 8 months, and he came into the shop and he's like, hey, so we're gonna— we're moving to San Holo and we're gonna close the shop down. If you guys want to come down there, you're welcome to. We're going to close the shop down. And I'm like, but I just moved here. I just finally moved home. And I'm like, I don't like that. I was like, I just got my dream job and now I'm going to lose it. And he was like, well, maybe you should buy the shop. I'm like, I don't have that kind of money. And it was a very, it was a very weird time because I, I went out on a limb and got an investor to buy the shop, and then I would just run it. And they worked out a deal. I, I was not involved in it, but they worked out a deal to where he bought the shop from Steve, the equipment and the inventory and everything. And then I was basically just going to run it. And so that's when we started Moab Motorsports. Okay.

[00:40:50.890] - Rory Irish

That was a very chaotic time because I I knew, I know how to run a business. I know how to do what I want to do. But when you're answering to someone else and they have very different beliefs in what you should charge, how things should be done, it was very, it was very difficult. And we went until 2020. I think it was January 2020, me and my girlfriend at the time that's now my wife, she was like, well, what if we just get a loan and we buy them out? And I was like, is that possible? And we sat down, we talked about it. We finally decided, all right, this is— this was something we wanted to do and that it was ours to figure out. So we worked out a deal. I bought my investor out. It was our shop. We own Moab Motorsports. It was ours free and clear. And then COVID hit, right?

[00:42:09.690] - Big Rich Klein

Don't we all know about that?

[00:42:12.270] - Rory Irish

And it was just horrible because they shut Moab down. Yeah, they did. And it was bad. I, I remember I drove to Colorado a couple times, Salt Lake. I drove to different places to pick vehicles up to take back to the shop in Moab. And we did a motor swap on one Jeep. We did a lift kit and install and an axle swap. We did a bunch of stuff just because no other shop would work on stuff because you weren't supposed to. And I had a brand new shop with a couple employees that were counting on having work to do. So I had people that were calling me, they were like, hey, I can't get a shop to work on my rig. Will you work on it? And I was like, absolutely. So I was driving across the state to get a rig the haul back to Moab to work on just to keep my guys working and to keep the lights on and keep things going forward.

[00:43:24.560] - Big Rich Klein

And you bounced around to a couple of different buildings.

[00:43:27.220] - Rory Irish

Yeah, we had the original shop that we were in, that Steve was in. We had a year lease on that. And then When the lease renewal came up, they sold the building to a hotel chain, so they booted us out in like 3 weeks. They're like, leave. And then we went into the— what is now the Ford dealership. And well, actually, we were between places for about a month right before Jeep Safari. And I was actually— I was actually out in a field um, trying to set stuff up to where I could even work on stuff if things came in for Jeep Safari. And right before then, I think it was 2 weeks before Jeep Safari, we got into the— what is the Ford dealership now— and we got slammed in there. We got lifts up and ready to work 3 days before Jeep Safari.

[00:44:35.340] - Big Rich Klein

And you guys had a busy safari, if I remember.

[00:44:37.340] - Rory Irish

Yeah, it was, it was insane. And yeah, which they, they all are. And we ran through that. Then we were there for a couple of years and then actually it was my investor that had bought that building. And so when I bought the business from him, I was then just renting half of the shop from him.

[00:45:04.360] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:45:04.910] - Rory Irish

And then they decided to lease that to the Ford dealership, so they booted us out. Right. And so then I went across the street to an old, an old, old shop, and we worked out of that for a couple of years. And that thing was horrible. It had no insulation in it. It had no heating, no air conditioning. You just cracked the doors and got a cross breeze and hope for the best.

[00:45:40.600] - Big Rich Klein

In the summertime. In the wintertime, you froze your butt off.

[00:45:44.020] - Rory Irish

Yeah, it was, it was horrible. And then a couple, about 3 years ago, they got their approval to build the hotels that are not the hotels, the apartment complex. So they booted us out, and I just happened to get a hold of my buddy Chris Brunner, who had the shop south of town, right? And he was— he had actually been leasing it to a production company that was filming a movie. Uh, yeah, a movie in Moab. I think it was that Kevin Costner movie, that Horizon Project. Okay. They had been leasing the shop to them because they'd been building set pieces in there and they had just canceled their lease. And I was like, was your shop available? And he's like, yeah, in like 2 weeks. And I was like, what will it take for me to get in there?

[00:46:53.520] - Big Rich Klein

Because—

[00:46:54.070] - Rory Irish

and then that's where you're at, that's where I'm at now. And that's so far, that's where we're staying. That's where— yeah, Chris has told me there's no reason for me to move.

[00:47:03.910] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that's nice, that's nice. And, uh, let's, let's start talking about the— are you— you're in that shop, it, it's You transitioned, I believe, at one point from doing repairs and doing some recoveries to just recoveries, or do you still run the shop as a shop as well?

[00:47:31.750] - Rory Irish

We shut the shop down in the, at the old shop, so it's probably been about, probably been a little over 3 years now. So when I moved back to Moab, my whole was to just do off-road recovery, right? And so I— when I moved back to Moab, moved down there, I had my buggy and then I had this old Chevy truck. And the old Chevy truck was— it was my buddy's rock crawler that I built for him, and he had wheeled it, he'd done a bunch of stuff to it, and then He was like, man, I gotta, I gotta sell this. I don't want to, but I gotta sell it. I gotta get a more reliable vehicle. And so I was like, well, let's work something out and I'll buy it from you. And because I was like, if you try to sell it, everybody's gonna look at it like it's a pile of junk and they just want the front axle because all they want is the Dana 60 out of it. Right. And he's like, okay. So I made him a deal and I bought it from him. And then I put like a very rudimentary gin pole that I could hook the rear winch up to to pick up.

[00:48:55.590] - Rory Irish

Like, I actually used it to load my toolboxes into my truck to move to Moab. Okay. And I moved down there and I still had the pole on the back because I used it to load and unload everything. And I remember I'd worked for Steve for a couple of weeks and he was like, hey, we're going to go, we're going to go wheel this weekend. We're going to watch BFE. Do you want to go? And I was like, yeah, my buggy's broken, but I'll bring my old Chevy. What is now Trailmater was an ugly, ugly, ugly old truck. I showed up with that and Steve was just— you just see his look that he was very unimpressed with this truck. And he was like, so this is your rock crawler, huh? And I was like, no, I was like, my other rock crawler is like broken. I was like, but this is kind of my backup crawler. And he was just like, oh, it was just so funny because you just see the look in his face like, I hired this guy to work at my off-road shop and this is his vehicle. And it was so funny.

[00:50:13.300] - Rory Irish

I mean, it had white spoke rims, completely bald TSLs. They looked like inner tubes. And just, just an old beat-up truck, had no bed on it and had that pole on the back that just kind of flopped around. And it was really funny. I remember that very vividly. It's so funny. But my thought was, because I had the welder and all the stuff on my buggy, so that's what I always did recoveries with. And then somebody called me one night and they had a TJ that was broken on Hamburger Hill and the rear axle had like the brackets had ripped off. So the rear axle was like barely attached to the Jeep and they're like, we really need a way to like carry it out. So I had that pole on the truck and I was like, well, this could work. As we went down there and we rigged it up and carried it out of there, and right away I was like, there's something to this. Like, this could be really useful. So I started focusing on building the Trailmater tow truck instead of my using my buggy for recoveries. So I went and I put a welder on it and started tooling it out and getting all that done and building all that.

[00:51:50.490] - Rory Irish

And while I was doing the shop, and especially when I bought, when I bought the shop from Steve, it came with all the used parts. So I started using a bunch of this stuff that came out of the used parts section to build the truck. And just started adding winches and add stuff and add this and add that and just started building a very specific off-road tow truck for Moab. And it was really funny because I would start putting it together and I'd build something and I'd be like, I think this will work. And then I would take it and my buggy out onto Hells And it was during the winter when nobody was out there, and I would pick my buggy up and carry it around Hell's Revenge in certain spots and see how it would do and if it would do and whatever. And then if it didn't work, I'd change it, or I'd try it, or this works but that didn't, and I just keep tinkering with it. And so it was always kind of a part of my shop, but it was like a, a a side thing. And, and then it got to the point where I was doing so many recoveries, it was interfering with the shop.

[00:53:18.810] - Rory Irish

And I was always posting stuff on Facebook about the truck. And it was funny because there was a few people that are like, I want to see more about this truck. I want to see a long-form video explaining the truck and what it has on it. So like my very first YouTube videos were walkarounds of the truck, of just all the tools that I had on it and the winches and all the stuff and spare parts and random things. And, and then the videos with YouTube kind of started going and picking up. And I think it was like a year that I didn't touch it. I didn't touch YouTube or anything. But then we were watching me and me and Sean, one of my employees, we were watching Mass Off-Road Recovery like during COVID and we're like, check this dude out. Like he's pulling people out of the sand and he's just getting thousands and thousands of views. Why can't we do that? And the short answer is you can. Like, anybody can start a YouTube channel. Like, literally anybody. The hard part, which you learned this, is growing a YouTube channel. Right. Yeah. Like anybody can start one.

[00:54:55.790] - Rory Irish

That's easy. Anybody's allowed to do it. But when, when you start, you start figuring out, like, if you have a shop, then you have to keep that shop going. You have to be there at 8:00 to open the doors, make sure all your guys have work to do, make sure all this is going. And then if you get a recovery, you go out and you film it with your phone by yourself. Because you got people in the shop, you got to keep that going, and then you film it, and then you edit it in the middle of the night, and then you upload it. And so you've only slept 2 or 3 hours a day and trying to do it all. Yeah, try to do all of that. Like, I didn't, I didn't get an editor until I think I was at 85,000 subscribers. Wow. And that's when I hired an editor because I just couldn't keep up with everything. And then we, we decided to take some of the money out of savings and hire an editor and see if that would help the channel. And it started helping the channel and it started doing better.

[00:56:06.430] - Rory Irish

And it was like, man, I can kill myself to, to grow a shop, which was doing great. But the hard part about having a shop in Moab is how unrelenting everyone is. Like, I would get yelled at daily in my shop for not having parts on hand, not having the right parts, not having parts for this random vehicle that someone brought to Moab that, you know, I thought this was an off-road shop. Why don't you have— why don't you have an axle shaft for a 1978 Mitsubishi? And just all this. And then you get yelled at all the time. And it was like, this is stressful. Like, I have no idea. I have nothing but the utmost respect for how long Steve had a shop in Moab. Because everybody is just— and they always— they're, you know, anybody that comes to Moab is always broke on Saturday or Sunday and they've got to get home. And it's everybody else's fault if they can't get home. And it was very stressful, but then it was— I would do recoveries and people were just happy that I offered that service. And so it was like, man, if I've got to choose between which one I want to pursue, then I'm going to choose the recovery one.

[00:57:48.460] - Rory Irish

And it was actually when one of the shop moves, we were skeptical on if we were going to find a shop. So I was kind of like, well, we'll just shut everything down and I'll just do recoveries. I'll lay all the guys off and we'll just do recoveries until we can find a shop and then we'll kick it back up. And that ended up not happening. But then as the YouTube thing was growing, I actually had both of my guys came in and turned in their notice. One was going to quit in 2 weeks and one was going to quit in a month. And they were like, we're just sick and tired of this, like of the mechanicing side of it. Right. Of like the stress and the this and that. And I was like, look guys, just give me a couple more months. Just hang with me for a couple more months and we're going to shut the shop down. And so we shut the shop down and just did full recovery, but with the YouTube. So like, then Mike became my dedicated cameraman and Sean became like my dedicated helper. And so then we, we just focused on that because my thought was is like YouTube has like a 5 to 10 year shelf life, you know what I mean?

[00:59:26.830] - Rory Irish

You get to a point where people have seen everything you've done and they're not interested in it anymore, right? And so I'm like, look, let's just run with it until it pans out and it's done, and then I can always go back to opening a shop. Like, that's pretty easy. I can always go back to doing that. But like, let's, let's have fun with this while we can. And so it was about 3 years ago that we just, we went full recovery and full YouTube. And I— it's not showing any signs of slowing down. So I'm having fun with it and having a blast.

[01:00:09.110] - Big Rich Klein

That's really cool. That's really cool. So let's, let's talk about the, like, the, the off-road games that you participate in. Um, does that— is that just for fun, or do you think that helps the business?

[01:00:24.170] - Rory Irish

Uh, it helps both. It is absolutely for fun. So the very first one, it was super funny. So I, I had my tow truck built already. And I had done a couple recoveries with Matt, and he had seen how handy the, the tow truck aspect of it was. So he decided he was going to build this wrecker. And then, uh, Paul with Fab Rats had their old tow truck. It was actually his dad's wood truck, farm truck, tow truck, whatever thing, right? And they both decided to do full-on builds. Paul rebuilt his and Matt was building his. And so Matt called me and he's like, look, we're going to do like the Tow Truck Olympics kind of thing. And I was like, okay, I'm interested, tell me what's going on. And so he goes, well, I'm going to finish my truck and Paul's going to finish his, and then we should have you come over to Sand Hollow and we'll set up like an obstacle course and we'll have some fun with it. And I was like, okay. And right away everybody was excited about it. Like the whole internet was all for it. And so they, they started nominating who needed to come and all this stuff.

[01:02:02.570] - Rory Irish

And so the first year there was 5 trucks and it was so much fun because they set it up where it was supposed to be a competition, but it was supposed to be a silly competition. So like not a legitimate one. So every team got $100 in $1 bills and then you were supposed to bribe the judges to try and win. Okay, so you like, you go up to the other team's judges and be like, Well, you know, I got $5 that says that they didn't climb that very good. You know, I just have some fun with it. It was just silliness. But the internet did what the internet does, and they got very mad that there was no clear-cut winner, that it was all just silly. But it's supposed to be silly. It's supposed to be fun. Like None of this is serious, and we're just having it. We're, we're entertaining. That's the hardest part that I have with the YouTube thing, is because this is my job, and it's been my job since before YouTube. And when I go out and get somebody's rig, uh, they're paying me for a service that I'm doing.

[01:03:39.330] - Rory Irish

And I don't want to damage their rig. So the off-road games is very freeing to me because we're usually dragging a vehicle that we don't care about and we get to have a little fun doing what we do. And it's, it's very weird because like in that aspect, when I'm filming that stuff, I am being an entertainer. I'm playing around and I'm having fun and I'm not taking anything serious. But when I'm doing my job, I'm very serious about it. And I'm very— it is very difficult because now, like, every— everything you click on YouTube, there's Somebody's doing off-road recovery. Yeah, everybody's got a tow truck, everybody's got something. So true. Which, which, like I said, I mean, everybody's been doing off-road recoveries for years. There was a four-wheel drive tow truck in Moab from Nations Towing since the '80s, so they've been doing it forever. We just took it to another level where like they can only go up certain trails and we're— we don't have a trail restriction list. If you went in there and got stuck, we will find a way to get you out. That's why we've got— I've got my buggy for the hard trails.

[01:05:18.610] - Rory Irish

I've got Trail Mater, I've got Mini Mater, I've got the Double XJ, which is just specifically for dirt bikes and adventure bikes. So like, we've built an entire fleet of vehicles just to get toys or vehicles that go out in Moab and get stuck or have an issue or, you know, breakdown, whatever. But yeah, we don't necessarily do it for the views. You know, we're not just making up scenarios or doing that. We're legitimately going out and getting people. And it's very tough.

[01:06:04.480] - Big Rich Klein

It's very tough when you get people who are trying to do it for different reasons and they're staging things or, you know, traveling out of state to go you know, to the Rubicon and do a recovery or something like that.

[01:06:25.010] - Rory Irish

Yeah, when it's, when it's all, when it's all very— yeah, all staged. Yeah, well, it's staged to a point, but then there's, there's the one guys, there's a lot of guys that go out and they do these recoveries and then they're like, well, we're gonna pay you, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna pay you because 'Somebody else said they were going to charge you this much, so we're going to pay you to show that, you know, we're, we're here to help.' Well, all right, cool. And, and I love that, that there's channels that can do that, right? But at the same time, we're, we're not a channel. We're a recovery company first and a YouTube channel second. And that's a very different dynamic because I get a lot of people that call me and they're like, oh, so you're going to film this, so it's free, right? And I'm like, no. And they're like, oh, well, I thought it was free. I'm like, well, it's not. Me and Mike, me and Mike have that joke between us where we're like, well, you know, maybe one day UNICEF will get into the off-road recovery business.

[01:07:47.150] - Big Rich Klein

And that's one of the things I've noticed is that there's all these recovery pages on the internet now, especially on Facebook. Um, I spend a lot of time on the Gulf Coast of Texas and there's all sorts of recovery, you know, every community down there has a recovery page or three. Where people are, you know, going out and getting people out of the sand, you know, pretty easy recoveries. I mean, you know, nothing, nothing like what you guys are doing. And then, uh, but you know, you see the same thing and, you know, there's NorCal Rescue and, you know, there's all these different recovery place things, you know, you got Arizona and everybody, you know, everybody's got a recovery area. It seems like.

[01:08:35.950] - Rory Irish

Yeah. Yeah, well, like, that's the funny thing is, is somebody breaks down in Moab and they jump on like Moab Prince 4 Wheeling and they're like, hey, you know, I'm stuck out somewhere, but I've got this and that. What should I do? And a lot of people get on there and they're like, call Matt's Off-Road Recovery. It's like he's 6 hours away. Yeah, hey, and everybody just goes, oh, he's in Utah, I thought he was close, right?

[01:09:12.590] - Big Rich Klein

That's the problem with, with that, with those websites or those pages that are specific to an area. Yeah, somebody goes to that area, gets on that page, starts following it, and then the next thing you know, they're they're an expert.

[01:09:28.740] - Rory Irish

Yeah, they're like, oh, that's, that's the worst one is, is like people get on and they'll ask questions and they're like, hey, you know, I'm going to go run this trail with this vehicle. Is that going to be okay? And there's a lot of people that will get on there with constructive, helpful, like, yeah, you're going to be fine. Do you have a winch? You know, you might want to be wary of this spot, that spot. Cane Creek is a really bad one. And people will be like, yeah, be careful on Hamburger Hill, but there is a winch spot. Don't worry, you'll be fine. And then there's another guy that's like, I don't know what everybody's saying. I drove that in 1997 in a stock Cherokee and I didn't have a single problem. So just go, you'll be fine. And it's like, no, it is eroded so much since that time. Like, what are you saying? You're gonna get somebody hurt.

[01:10:34.120] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, Hamburger Hill is not a joke. No, not anymore.

[01:10:36.460] - Rory Irish

It is deteriorated into a bad climb. And just, just the traffic and, and all the stuff has eroded some of the rocks. And there's, there's a lot of There's a lot of big stuff that gets a lot of rigs broken. And I've had that so many times where I'm like, I go in there and I'm like, well, why do you have this vehicle in here? It doesn't even have a winch or anything. Well, I got on one of the forums and everybody told me I'd be fine. And it's like, yeah, everybody runs a trail and then they're like, I did that 10 years ago and it was no problem. So I don't know what you're complaining about. It's like you're not up to date. Like saying you ran a trail 10 years ago is not the same trail.

[01:11:25.700] - Big Rich Klein

Or the other thing is, is experience level. Yeah. You know, I've seen guys with, with, you know, very well-built rigs that couldn't drive to save their own life.

[01:11:40.400] - Rory Irish

Yeah, that, that happens quite a lot too.

[01:11:43.570] - Big Rich Klein

We were, we were on Hamburger Hill with Charlene Bauer's Ladies Off-Road Network and doing a run. And I spotted first her dad Ben up the, up it. And the girls were all panicked because the group in front of us, there was 3 rigs, I think it was, that were just a poop show. I mean, they didn't— they made, they made the girls nervous. Yeah. Just watching these guys almost go off the edge and get, you know, spun around and everything. And I'm like, no, don't worry about it. I'll spot you up. This will be fine. So I spotted Ben up and I said, see how easy that was? You know, we'll get everybody up. Just listen to me. Every one of them made it up except for one that we needed to winch because the guy that was driving couldn't figure out Moab bump and wouldn't stay in it long enough. Oh yeah. I mean, he'd start to get up and then he'd back off and it's like, no, you got to get all the way up. I'll tell you when to, you know, you know, how much throttle, you know, how much, you know, when to stop, you know.

[01:12:57.200] - Big Rich Klein

And finally, I just, after like 4 or 5 tries and a busted tail light and a and damaged corner, which was all his fault, right? I said, okay, we're just going to hook the winch to you and pull you up. And we did. But, you know, that was the only one we had to do that with. The rest we got up there just fine. Yeah. And they were all, they were all, you know, pretty— they'd never seen an obstacle like that. So, and I'm not the greatest, you know, I'm not the greatest driver or spotter. I may put on extreme events, But that doesn't mean I, you know, necessarily can do them. I just seen a lot of people.

[01:13:31.870] - Rory Irish

Right. Well, that's what a lot of people like when I'm spotting somebody and I'm like, all right, just give it a little bit of gas. And they're like, throttle it. I'm like, no momentum, just a little, a little roll through it. And where your momentum carries you up is very different than give it throttle. And a lot of people, you can't get that, but that keeping a calm voice and explaining is just very difficult sometimes when people are not listening to what you're saying, right?

[01:14:08.360] - Big Rich Klein

I'd rather spot the girls. Oh yeah, the ladies, because they listen. Yes, you know, they're looking for you, looking to you for advice, and they're trusting you. Listen, where the guys, the guys are, you know, oh, I can do this.

[01:14:26.240] - Rory Irish

Oh, there's so much ego going around.

[01:14:29.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. So what's, uh, what is in the future? Well, how many, how many rigs were at the last Off-Road Games?

[01:14:40.520] - Rory Irish

Oh, let's see. I think we had 7 or 8 teams, Wreckers, and then Like I said, the amount of tow trucks that show up there or homebuilt four-wheel drive wreckers is insane.

[01:14:58.630] - Big Rich Klein

And the ones that aren't even competing, they just show up.

[01:15:02.510] - Rory Irish

I love it. I absolutely love when people, they message me on Facebook and they're like, hey, I, I seen your rig and it It motivated me. I wanted to build one, so I built one and I think it's awesome. And I tell everybody, I'm like, go for it, do that, but don't base it off of my truck 'cause my truck is set up for my area. You wanna build yours for your area. So what I have on mine might not work in your place. But try it, go out and try it. I have so many people that are like, well, what do you need to do? And I'm like, you just need to go out and try it and you're going to fail a bunch. And just be ready to adapt as you fail. Like, that's the biggest thing is you can try it 6 different ways and 5 of them are going to be horrible. What, you know, one's going to be great. Or listen to advice. Somebody might say something, you stand back and look at it. I used to tell everybody, I'm like, I have no problem taking advice or taking suggestions, but if I tell you no on that, it's probably because I've already tried it.

[01:16:31.670] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly, exactly. Those words of wisdom because, you know, you've been down there.

[01:16:36.490] - Rory Irish

Yeah, yeah, because that's, that's just the way it is. But you just keep trying it and keep trying it.

[01:16:43.450] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I really liked the, the time that you came out with Tow Mater and ran at WE Rock.

[01:16:50.550] - Rory Irish

Oh, that was a great time. That was, that was so much fun. 'Cause I was trying to like, I don't remember who it was. Somebody was saying that they had the most extreme off-road tow truck. And I was like, you know what would be really extreme? I'm gonna go do the WE Rock event with the truck. It was so much fun. It is not where the truck should have been. Right? But you proved a point. But it was a great time. And it was even better because the— on one course, the guy broke his wheel off and I actually ran out there and got him off the course, carried him over to the side, set him down. Then I ran the same course. And then after we finished, I went back and picked him up and carried him down and put him on his, on his trailer. Nice. And that was absolutely amazing. And then the next day broke my transfer case in half.

[01:18:05.500] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's, that sounds, that sounds about right. That, that happens to a lot of us. But So I understand that you're doing some off-road racing now. I—

[01:18:19.070] - Rory Irish

yeah, I bought a Class 1 desert race car and I, I went through and did a bunch of work to it and I was just going to buy it to just— I got such a good deal on it. I was like, I'm just going to play around and do some stuff. Famous last words. Yeah. My wife still holds that over my head. She's like, so this is going to be a hobby thing, huh? As I'm, as I'm ordering from Rugged Radios all the base station and all the stuff and yeah, going through Summit Racing. Yeah, she's like, yeah, so what happened to this? Wasn't going to be a big expense, but I went to, I went to Vernal for the Bonneville Off-Road Racing Series to race my very first ever legitimate race. I mean, I've competed in WE Rock for quite a few years. I used to do motocross and supercross, but I've never, like, raced, like, in a legitimate off-road race where you, you've got other traffic and you got to figure out how to get around them, how to do that. The dust is insane. Like when you lose—

[01:19:41.360] - Big Rich Klein

especially out there at Buckskin Hills.

[01:19:43.010] - Rory Irish

Yeah, when you completely lose visual of the road, it is so scary. But I ran my first race over there and I took first in my class and second overall for sportsman. Nice. And it was amazing. And I thoroughly hooked.

[01:20:06.440] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. Yeah, that's cool. And then, and that was it. And you guys were at the Buck Hill? Yeah, Buckskin Hills OHV.

[01:20:15.380] - Rory Irish

Yes, that is, that is amazing. Every town in America needs that complex. Agreed. Like, that is amazing. They've got a, they've got a full-on drag race, uh, or a drag strip circle track, dirt circle track. They've got a motorcycle track, and then they've got a rallycross course setup.

[01:20:41.000] - Big Rich Klein

Wow, they've added a lot out there since I've put on races there.

[01:20:44.520] - Rory Irish

Yeah, it's wild, all the stuff they've got out there.

[01:20:49.320] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Nice. What's, what's in the future for you, Rory? What are the grand plans?

[01:20:57.450] - Rory Irish

I don't really have like a grand plan. I'm just— I want to keep racing right at the moment. I want to keep trying that. I just raced my second race and it was the exact opposite of my first race. It was humbling. Yeah, I I was super excited because it was in Junction, and that's where I spent most of my 20s riding the dirt bike, was out in that area.

[01:21:31.240] - Big Rich Klein

Was it out just, uh, south of, uh, or east of the airport?

[01:21:36.740] - Rory Irish

Yeah, well, just north of, of the airport. Okay, just north. Yeah, so you go out around there, and it was, it was absolutely amazing. And I got to— there's a 23.5-mile lap and we had to do 5 laps. And I made it to mile marker 21 and my tire fell off.

[01:22:02.520] - Big Rich Klein

The tire or the corner?

[01:22:04.440] - Rory Irish

The tire. Um, the, the spindle broke. Okay. And so I lost the whole front wheel. So it was nothing that I could just patch back together and keep racing. It was just— it was done. And so I didn't even make one, one lap. I, I try— I was, I was looking at everything for how I could do it and where it, where it broke. And I went off the trail. I was kind of down off in a wash and and it had buried that whole front corner. And I was just like, man, there's 100 different things I could do, but whatever. But the biggest thing was, is I had a smile on my face the whole time because it's like I bought a used race car, you know? How long has that spindle been on there? How many races? Probably forever. How many races is that scene? How many? This— I'm glad it came apart when I was kind of going slow. I didn't wreck the car. I didn't rip anything off. So we went out there after the race, we winched it up on two wheels, put the hub back on, put the bearing in there, and I welded the bearing to the spindle and drove it back to the trailer and put it on the trailer.

[01:23:32.940] - Rory Irish

Nice. So it's like you win some, you lose some.

[01:23:38.080] - Big Rich Klein

Yep. Well, great. But that's awesome. And, uh, so the tow business is doing really well? Yeah, the recovery—

[01:23:46.970] - Rory Irish

the recovery business is doing good. I, I, I try to specify that to a lot of people. I'm not a tow company, I'm an off-road recovery company because I don't do on-road towing. Hey, if you're stuck in the dirt, I will come get you. But right. But that's, that's the nice thing is, is when I first started with the tow truck and doing the stuff in Moab, I got a lot of pushback from the tow companies in town because they thought I was coming after their work. And it took a couple of years to get them to understand that I want to do the work you don't want to do. Like, you don't want to take your nice trucks out onto a dirt road and trash them. And I absolutely don't want to be on a highway. So now, now they've, they've both come around to where we work really good together. Like, they send me the dirt work and I send them the on-road stuff, and it's just awesome.

[01:24:53.360] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Yeah. And so you don't, you don't have any desire to get on-road towing? No, not at all.

[01:25:01.600] - Rory Irish

Right.

[01:25:01.920] - Big Rich Klein

Not at all. And you don't take insurance?

[01:25:05.740] - Rory Irish

We do do insurance jobs. Usually if the rig's totaled, like if the rig's totaled or burnt or on, you know, whatever, and the insurance is paying for it, then we do that. We work with the insurance companies a lot of times. Okay. Yeah, we get called a lot from the sheriff's department, BLM, um, insurance companies. They're like, we've called everybody and everyone says you're the one to go get this because it's undoable. And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, that's usually what we do.

[01:25:46.840] - Big Rich Klein

That's great when you're the go-to.

[01:25:48.740] - Rory Irish

Yeah, it's, it's awesome, man. I love that. I mean, I came from, you know, the off-road industry and I'm very passionate about it and all that. So anytime we've done work with the BLM or we go get a rig, like they, they know that whatever I do, I'm going to do my best to not have it. I'm not going to damage anything that, that I should. I don't— I don't just barrel into the situation and, well, if the rig's off trail, then we'll go off trail to get it. No, no, no, no, no. We try to mitigate it. And if it fell off here, we're going to bring it back up here, you know, or if we do have to go off trail to get it, we work with them. I have had to do multiple times where I have to go in print out a thing of Google Earth and then where the vehicle is and draw out exactly how I'm going to go in and get it. What damage will be done, where we'll do the damage, where this will be and how we'll mitigate it to have it be in the wash.

[01:27:02.010] - Rory Irish

So after a couple seasons of, of runoff or whatever, it won't even be noticeable. But like we That makes sense. Yeah, we do do a lot of that. Like a lot of people see my videos and they're like, well, you're preaching tread lightly and then you're blazing in somewhere. And it's like, no, anything that I do, especially with it being filmed, I'm going to make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to and what the governing agency said I could do. Like whether I'm in the national park whether I'm on BLM, Forest Service, whatever, if we're doing something and especially if we're filming it, we're going to make sure we're doing what they want us to do, how they want us to do it. Because it'd be kind of stupid to go in there and tear stuff up and then film it and be like, look, we did this.

[01:27:55.270] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that leads to problems for you.

[01:27:57.750] - Rory Irish

Yeah. So it's like, no, no, no, we've already, you know, I had one where we went into, into Canyonlands to get a rig, and the road had got washed out. So there was a big cliff right where the road's supposed to be, and then right next to the road is a wash where there's a debris fence across there, and they had lifted up the debris fence and pulled their 4Runner underneath it to go down this wash, and then they got stuck in the mud by the river. Oh Lord. So we had to go in there. So I couldn't— I couldn't get the truck underneath the debris fence like they did, so I backed it off the cliff where the road is supposed to be, and I backed it off of there, and then I used the tires and everything to kind of dig some of the dirt wall out. And man, I got such blowback. I got— they emailed the BLM, the National Park Service. Everybody said I should be banned for life and never allowed on a national park or in a national park again because I was destroying the bank. And it looked like I was, but I wasn't.

[01:29:16.680] - Rory Irish

I was just putting the road back in where the road's supposed to be. Right. And oh, it was so funny, but I got a call from the BLM and everybody, and they're like, did you just do a new video? Because we're getting emails about it. And I was like, that's funny. But I mean, they had no problem with it. They're like, well, you're gonna get a call from the National Park because they were tagged in the email. And I said, well, I talked to the National Park when I did it. And they said that was okay, and they're like, oh well, yeah, then fine. And nothing's come of it. Good, good.

[01:29:58.160] - Big Rich Klein

That's good. Yeah, but yeah, you're always going to get those people that are—

[01:30:01.760] - Rory Irish

oh yeah, Nancy. So there's so many people that watch my videos, like I've had so many people comment on a video and they're like, well, you know, that recovery was good, but, um, I seen you left your shovel there, so And it's like, we didn't leave our shovel, we just didn't video picking it up, right? Uh, yeah, but it is— so many people think if, if I didn't see it on the video that it didn't happen, right? Your videos would be a lot longer. Yeah, and, and very much more boring. They used to be. I used to, when I was doing the editing, I would leave so much in because I thought it was like part of the recovery, you know? And so I would have 45 minutes of me just driving around Canyonlands today, heading out to somebody. And it was so funny because I hired an editor and he started cutting a bunch of stuff out and I'm like, You cut out half the recovery. What are you doing? And it made the videos so much easier to watch when he started cutting it all out, right?

[01:31:22.160] - Big Rich Klein

That's the difference in being an editor.

[01:31:25.050] - Rory Irish

Yeah, but like I said, it's, it's definitely been a learning experience for that, um. For like the, the YouTube aspect of it. And it's a whole nother business and it's a whole nother business plan. And I know more about like camera angles and editing and everything than I ever wanted to know.

[01:31:53.050] - Big Rich Klein

But it's part of the game.

[01:31:54.500] - Rory Irish

But like I said, I mean, of all the jobs I've had, I mean, I've had a lot worse than this. And this is just a lot of fun. And I love like the Off-Road Games is probably my favorite event throughout the year because it's all fans that come out to that. Like, it's all the people that have been watching you all year and they want to come out and they want to meet you. Like, it's crazy every year, the amount of people that show up and how many people are there. And there's never a bad time. Like, everybody's happy to be there. There are smiles on their face. It doesn't matter if they stand in line for 10 or 15 minutes to meet you. They're just happy. And it's such a different feeling. It's so awesome. Like, I don't— That's really cool. It's still weird to me that people want to, you know, travel from across the country or even across the world to meet me. But with the YouTube aspect has changed all that, and it's, it's really awesome. It's super humbling. I'm, I'm happy for it, but it's still very weird to me, right?

[01:33:14.070] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's cool that, that, that it's worked out that way. Really is. Yeah. So Rory, I want to say thank you so much for coming on Conversations with Big Rich and talking about your life and, and what you got going now. I find it intriguing. And, you know, Shelley and I looked at it years ago about doing, you know, filming our life as we traveled around the country, putting on events and putting, you know, and then I looked at it and, you know, it's like, you know what, that's way too much work besides all the work I'm doing anyway. And, you know, I'll make a few posts. People follow us that way. That's fine. But to make it, you know, try to turn it into something It just, it wasn't for me. I'm glad you were able to make it work.

[01:34:00.300] - Rory Irish

It's very, it's a very difficult thing. It's a lot of fun. I've been able to do things that I've never imagined would have come about. But it's, it's very stressful at times.

[01:34:20.830] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yep. Can imagine. Well, thank you again. No, thank you. I appreciate you spending the time. I know you were busier earlier and we had to delay this by a few minutes so you could finish up a— it sounded like another recovery. Yeah. Burnt side-by-side. Yep. There you go. Probably. Well, I'm not going to call out a name of what brand, but probably the typical one. Yep, yep. So anyway, thank you, Rory, and, uh, good luck in the future. Um, hope to see you next year when I'm in Moab. If not, maybe catch you somewhere else, uh, along the way.

[01:35:03.400] - Rory Irish

Definitely. Thank you so much, Rich.

[01:35:04.720] - Big Rich Klein

It's been nice. All right, Rory, you take care, and, uh, I'll talk to you again, buddy, and hopefully never because I need a recovery.

[01:35:14.000] - Rory Irish

No, that's never the reason anybody wants to call.

[01:35:18.220] - Big Rich Klein

Right. All right. You take care and thank you so much. Okay. Bye-bye. 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.