The Heavy Equipment Podcast
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The Heavy Equipment Podcast
HEP-isode 35 | Road Rage, Fortescue, and Mama's Family
We kick off today's exciting HEP-isode with a safety minute about road rage. Next, we explore what high-speed car electric chargers and the Ark of the Covenant from "Indiana Jones" have in common, interview Fortescue's Andrew Carlisle, and have a nostalgic fever dream about Mama's Family.
Welcome back to the latest episode of the Heavy Equipment Podcast. I'm your host, joe Boris, here with my co-host, mike hot, mike Schweitzer. Mike, you know we like to start all of our formal meetings with a safety minute. And the young lady who gave this week's safety minute was talking about road rage. And we're sitting there in a room full of 40 people and she goes. Don't you hate it when people start honking at you and leaning on the horn and yelling obscenities at you? I got two or three people a day doing this to me and we need to really cut back on road rage. How many people have experienced road rage today? And she held her hand up like a proud little muffin and not a single other hand went up. This is one of those where it's like dude, I've never been in an accident. The husband looks over, goes, yeah, but you caused six on the way here.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I know exactly the kind of person you're talking about. You know, know to them. They're in their own bubble, they're in their own world. Meanwhile the Mack trucks behind them with 14 feet wide of equipment going. Lady, I get it, just pull over and wait, it's overwhelming for you.
Speaker 2:I will say, though I was in Chicago traffic one fine afternoon. It was sunny out and nice, and some guy was definitely in a hurry and I had gotten thrown off the highway due to an accident. You know they, this gps in chicago is beautiful because it tells you every road you shouldn't be on to avert an accident. And if you don't know, if you don't know and you're, especially if you're in something that shouldn't be on these roads, it's fun. Oh yeah, but I happen to be driving this car. I got off the highway, went down three exits, realized that this uh part of the globe was not for me, and I got back on the highway. It wasn't for any particular reason other than the bagdad shambles, asphalt that was left behind. It's horrible. I mean, I was dodging stuff. I literally went to the left and a guy went to the right.
Speaker 2:I didn't see him after that, so he went into a pothole, he's still under there yeah, this lady lets me on and she is so mad, so mad at me because I merged my way in you know zipper moment, every other car, I put the uh, I put the rear sunshade up. Oh, she was just so upset, huh. I thought it would diffuse the situation. Apparently, it made it worse.
Speaker 1:No, they need you to know how upset you are. The little window goes up. It didn't work. That'd be such a baller move if you're driving the limo and someone in the back is just reaming you out. You just hit the button, the window goes up. Thanks for playing. I'll check back in once you've calmed down, sir, but people get worked up and heated man, I mean over crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:Road rage is bad. I mean there's people, people have been shot. I mean guy walks up. This happened not too long ago. Guy stopped at a stoplight behind a car, walked up two cars and shot the person at the light because apparently he was upset that you know it was taking him too long to get through these stoplights, you know, and that is oh yeah, I think that is a real problem because there's some.
Speaker 2:There's some crazy stuff. When you see a guy walking up and he's got a gun out, I don't know what you're supposed to do. It's, it's hard. A lot of guys are like throw down, get out skin that smoke wagon, it's a tombstone. You don't. You don't jump out of the car, take a defensive stance like 1970s detectives movies. You know where you got wide stance. You got the gun hanging out four feet away from you and you know plug him. You know this isn't Starsky and Hutch.
Speaker 1:In fairness, though. In fairness, if that guy had made that left turn a little quicker, he wouldn't have been sitting there to get shot Correct, and this is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:It goes both ways. You got the people that are causing the problem and you have the people that have a self-perceived problem in front of them. Oh, it's so bad, dude, Just like when it's late at night and the traffic light goes from the normal pattern to the flashing pattern that screws up so many people around midnight. It's a line of cars, everybody's trying to get through and all of a sudden all the lights are red. No one can figure it out, and then they start flashing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was an intersection back where I grew up in Florida that would switch over relatively early, like at midnight. It would switch over to the from the uh, you know red, yellow, green to just the flashing four-way red. And man, I swear there was a whole group of people who just couldn't figure it out and decided they were going to gun it every time they saw that light.
Speaker 2:I, you know the other, the other tactic that works and anybody that's drove a big truck or been around big truck stuff or heavy equipment or moving heavy equipment, any of the stuff that we talk about. It's called first gear. You put it in first gear with the four ways on, you creep your way out into the intersection, you got all your flashy lights, blinking, oversized signs and everything. People tend to stop.
Speaker 1:They know you're coming to stop yeah, well, I think that works a lot better in like a Mack truck than did in my little Hyundai.
Speaker 2:Well, that's true. There's a little bit more respect there, you know a little more.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of big trucks, man, I have been geeking out over these just giant 200 plus ton mining haul trucks that I've been checking out the last couple of weeks Did you see the bunch of them being released. We saw one, obviously at volvo days, obviously thanks to regalot and those guys for having us out. One last, uh, final plug for them. But much more recently I've been checking out the final, oh final plug for the morning oh okay, okay, all right, all right, anyways going.
Speaker 1:It'll be six minutes. In six minutes It'll be afternoon, we'll be. We'll plug them again, anyway, after that interruption. But the leap, that's cool. The lead hair guys also have this massive trucks and the thing that blew my mind about this was that they're actually working not just on these giant haulers and everything else, but they're actually working on the charging side and they've got a six megawatt charger on this thing. So six megawatts, if you're doing that math, if you've got a Tesla and the battery on that thing drains to empty and you plug it into a supercharger, that's about 300 kilowatts and it'll take you about 35, 40 minutes to charge up. If you plugged this six megawatt, 6,000 kilowatt charger into the Tesla, it would fully charge in under a second and explode about two seconds later like a bolt of lightning.
Speaker 2:Perhaps that is what happens to some of those teslas. They catch fire. Something so powerful, so concentrated passes them on the highway.
Speaker 1:They burst into flames that's the raw masculinity of mike switzer yeah, well, let me tell you you some got nothing for that do you.
Speaker 2:No, the charging stuff is very important. A lot of people don't understand it and it's going to take a lot of training. It's going to take a lot of people. It takes a lot of effort, just like everything else does. I mean, you guys are like oh, diesel feels so much easier. It isn't, it isn't. You got to store it, you got to move it, you got to contain it. You got to contain it, get deaf, you get all the other things to go with it. Electricity has the same woes, but in a different way. You got to obtain it, you got to house it, you got to connect it and you got to be trained on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, two things for that. Number one diesel is easier. Now Go back to 1924 and see if diesel was easier when they still had horses and donkeys on the job site, because getting diesel out there was such a nightmare. So give it time, give it another hundred years and see how easy this electric stuff is. But secondary from that, forget about charging, forget about electric vehicles. Let's just talk about electrical power going into a building. There is so much happening in there and for something that is so ubiquitous in our lives and something that is so present as electricity, people don't get it, man. I mean, if you're sitting there shoveling out there in the yard and you go through the main power line to the to the building, you're not even there anymore, you're just blasted into space by this electricity.
Speaker 2:You know it's kind of like one of these deals If you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't mess with it and that's why I say the training is very important. Otherwise, that thing is going to show up on a job site and everybody's going to be all gooey eyed and everything's going to be great, and they're going to just plug this thing in because we got to get moving. And then it's going to be like when you rip the lid off the Ark of the Covenant it's going to melt your face right and everybody just turns the skeletons and falls over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can't release a lightning bolt upon the job site. Okay, you can't be doing that.
Speaker 1:Well, that's how they shot that special effect. They got the little guy that was in R2-D2. They put him in the box. They had him over the electrical cord going into Warner Brothers Studios.
Speaker 2:As soon as they opened the lid, that was his cue to jam the shovel into the line and melt that everybody's face off what's solely what it was. They had to fire hose and they had the electric line running inside of it, and when he cut both those things together it immediately vaporized everybody on site. But thank god they captured it on video, spielberg released it and we got one of the best scenes of all time in a movie yeah, single take, you can't do that anymore you can't do this in a multiple take.
Speaker 2:It's like jaws. That shark was so screwed up all the time, they just were lucky for the footage they got oh yeah, you know it's, it's wild.
Speaker 1:We talked about jaws. When I saw jaws for the first time, I must have been six years old and I was afraid to go in. I wasn't only afraid to go in the ocean, I was afraid to go into the pool. I was afraid that shark was going to come out of the toilet, my ass out. And I showed jaws to my kids and they were laughing their asses off. They loved it.
Speaker 2:It's when first time I saw jaws. It had been out for a long time by the time I saw it. And, um, I remember they rented jaws and they rented the little mermaid. I watched a little thisermaid. I watched a little. This is funny. I watched the Little Mermaid because I was little.
Speaker 2:I'm like five years old, you know, whatever. You know they're singing Under the Sea. And then later on they thought I was asleep and I'm sitting there on the couch watching Jaws and I'm like it's another, you know, fish movie. This is great, yeah. And then this lady's getting ripped across the fucking bay out there, you know, and I'm like five years old, pissing myself on the couch, then I'm getting yelled at because the couch is wet, you know, I mean, meanwhile, none of this is my fault, okay, this, actually the fear in that movie when I was five years old is similar to when you see the. You see the russian at 45 mile an hour flying through a rest area and you know, you know that the hood that you just spent four hours over the weekend polishing is about to get ripped off. That's, you know that's going to happen. And then you got to politely knock on the door and say, hey, you took that from me.
Speaker 1:And you know what you get in response.
Speaker 2:You know what you get in response I drive Freightliner Big truck, move out of the way. And what you get in response you know what you get in response I drive freightliner, big truck move out the way they shut the door and drive off.
Speaker 1:They don't know we got to get oleg on the phone we got to get him on the phone.
Speaker 2:He's just perfect. Well, olympia transport they're greek, but they're not. The greeks own it, but they're not greek driving. I telling you right now, they look the same standing next to each other.
Speaker 1:They're not You've got. You've got Oleg and Piotr and who else? Camille? That's it. What a nightmare I love it, it is, it is.
Speaker 2:You imagine those guys showing up at a job site like like 4 am to start loading up a D11 and taking it apart?
Speaker 1:Oh, I can.
Speaker 2:I loading up a d11 and taking it apart. Oh, I can't, I don't think I want. I think they butcher the sheep before they make the gloves out of it right there on the site. I can't talk about their girlfriend that way.
Speaker 1:That's bad this is the focal. This is the one where we all get canceled.
Speaker 2:It'll be great, every one of these run the verge of getting canceled and have no, no friends.
Speaker 1:That's why we're, that's why we're unbranded, unowned, unaffiliated and unsubstantiated the whole thing about that, though, is that these guys are waiting to hear their name called out on the thing. Hey, chris, how you doing? They listen to these, they wait for it, they love it you gotta, you gotta, have a rant every now and then. You know I mean like I have a rant every now and then because it's it's real life.
Speaker 2:you know, I'm an end user and my guys are end users. I don't use it as much as the guys do. But you know what? I buy the stuff. I get pissed off by buying it. I get pissed off by warranty. I get pissed off because of how it's being used, Not by my guys, but by the guys that we don't employ, that we only get out of the union halls and then we get pissed off about how dirty it gets. So let me tell you something we just enacted a new initiative. Whether you're a smoker or not, there are variations of smoking. Grew up with smokers. I know a lot of people that smoke. Today we just have initiation or initiative to. It is an initiation, but it's an initiative as well to not smoke in any commonly used equipment, which means all of our heavy equipment will not allow to be smoked in anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, that makes total sense.
Speaker 2:It makes total sense. It's the same with tobacco chewing you can't be chewing and spitting in the machines. But what's really bad and this is the hard part of the industry that we're in, because we have like a cross-generational riff you got guys that are in their late 60s. They're trying to retire because they got in a little late. And then you got the young guys coming up, the guy in his 60s. He shows up on the job site. Listen, he's got the corncob pipe hanging out of his mouth. He's got a bag of tobacco stuffed up behind her. He never leaves, he works all day. He's a productive guy. You got to go and tell that guy hey, you can't smoke in that machine. Well, he stares you down from up in the cab and scrapes the tobacco tar out of the pipe and smacks it on the side of the door, shuts the door and goes back to work. It's dedication. It's hard to curve that. It's true, though You're supposed to send a guy like that home? No, it's a hard thing.
Speaker 1:It's a hard thing, but you do have that cross-generational thing. And you know one thing I always say you know like growing up in the late 70s, early 80s it is so hard for people to understand that everything smelled like smoke.
Speaker 2:Oh, you didn't notice it. That's the thing. Everything did that everything back in time, today, five years old you'd be sick.
Speaker 1:You'd be sick if you're 65 years old. You've been smoking your whole life. You don't even smell it. You don't. You literally don't understand what these kids are talking about. And if you're 20, 25 years old, even 30 years old, you probably grew up in a world without that smell being in your life. Unless your parents smoked, because unless you're walking by it somebody smoking in the park or out in front of a building, you never experienced it.
Speaker 2:No. And then imagine you get this brand new, brand new Lee bear 300 ton haul truck on your job and the very first guy to get in that baby is your most senior truck driver and he's going to get in it and try it out. He's going to be in there with the Lee bear guys giving them the thumbs up, saying, hey, I like it, I think it's put together well, and then he pulls out that pipe and lights her up. First thing exactly no, it's rough.
Speaker 1:Well, while we're back on the topic of libra, I was wondering how we were going to get back to it, so that was very like how I did that right?
Speaker 2:I do I commend you.
Speaker 1:They just got a four billion with a B $4 billion order for electric haul trucks, excavators, wheel loaders and charging equipment from the Australian firm Fortescue. Fortescue, obviously the largest mineral mining operation in the world, and we have a guest today. It is the CTO of Fortescue, paul Hogan. Paul Hogan, no, no.
Speaker 2:That ain't a truck.
Speaker 1:That ain't a truck, that's a truck.
Speaker 2:It's a truck, christ. You bring a truck on a ride, yeah, and in a year, oh fuck, we got to do this exactly again.
Speaker 1:No, it is not our fate. Um, yeah, so kind of a fun introduction. We've already been talking for a little bit here, so, uh, really excited to have Andrew Carlisle on today. He's the managing director of the mobility business at Fortescue Zero. Andrew, you're calling in all the way from the UK. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 3:No, no, thanks, so much Thanks for having me Really looking forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1:Joe, well, as soon as you said that you actually listened to this show, I became immediately terrified because, like nobody should be forced to listen to my nonsense, I appreciate your uh willingness to put yourself through that I think you have some great conversations, so I look forward to be part of the dialogue.
Speaker 1:The original impetus for, uh, putting this show together was the announcement at mine expo the massive purchase of the Liebherr equipment from Fortescue which I keep trying to say Fortescue but I know it's Fortescue so I apologize for that if I get it wrong but that's a multi-billion dollar investment in some really massive zero emission machinery. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, of course I mean. I think, firstly, we're very fortunate to have a chairman that is incredibly passionate about decarbonisation. He really wants to make a difference and a difference to the world. So he's committed to the entire company that we're going to do real zero by 2030. So not net zero, real zero by 2030. And as part of that, essentially we are decarbonising the entire mine operation. So every single piece of equipment you can imagine on that mine site will be electrified and decarbonized in some way. So the announcement they were kind of well, a couple of announcements that happened last week, but particularly the Liebherr announcement last week was really around the core minehole track, which is the Liebherr T264 and the electric power system around that. So it's a huge deal for us and there's a huge amount of engineering effort that goes into that truck and the integration of that power system to that truck. But they will get into the mine site and will really start to help decarbonize the operation. So incredibly exciting for us.
Speaker 1:Well, the other thing that's really exciting about this is you guys are one of the few companies that is truly going to a zero carbonization plan. That's the goal. You're not talking about buying carbon credits or offsets or anything. You are truly trying to decarbonize. So hats off to you on that. The announcement from this morning the Fortescue Zero Marine Battery Pack that's something that you guys are manufacturing yourselves out of the new advanced manufacturing center in Detroit, and I think this is huge, because not only are Fortescue mining the materials in a sustainable and low carbon way, but you're also going to be manufacturing them in that way and distributing them in that way.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So decarbonization is really important to us full stop, right, let's be clear. And if we can help customers around the world decarbonise, we're there to help them right. So you know, whilst we are absolutely kind of committed to decarbonisation in the industry, and the mining sector particularly, you know we want to also take those products and solutions more broadly across other mobility kind of businesses. So where I sit is really kind of leading the mobility business units. That's anything from high performance automotive through to the leisure industry right, all the way through to big industrial kind of class eight, class six trucks, right. So that's we're full spectrum. So we really want to kind of make a difference and we're really kind of pushing. One of the key messages you'll hear our chairman talking about all the time is the power of now. You don't have to wait, there are solutions available. So it's get on with it, stop the excuses and really get on with it.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned the high-performance automotive, you mentioned the leisure space, but this announcement is specific to the marine industry and we have seen a couple of luxury boats, luxury yachts, volvo Penta drivetrains coming out that are capable of electric drive, but this is a marine battery pack. How is a marine battery pack distinct from an on-road or a BESS energy storage battery pack? What makes it different?
Speaker 3:makes it different. Yeah, so well, I think, first and foremost, you know, we feel there is huge growth potential for electrification in the marine space and in the leisure marine crafts, a huge growth coming Very much a consumer driven industry, right? So people want to make a difference, people want to decarbonize, but what we've created, then, is a solution that is versatile and adaptable to go into those boats. Right, we're not just taking an automotive battery and putting it into a boat. We're thinking about the use case and developing a battery that works for boats. Right, and we've got a great partner called Evoa Propulsion. Evoa understands this market really well and has great relationships with a number of the major OEMs across North America and in Europe. So we're really trying to partner with them to make sure that we can deliver this high voltage marine battery and make sure it's fit for purpose for that industry.
Speaker 1:I think that's a really good distinction, because you're talking about Evoa and the powertrain and they're obviously capable of more than a thousand horsepower and ungodly amounts of torque right off the line. You know the right propeller design, this thing's going to come right up out of the water and get moving. But it's important to note here that you guys are producing battery power for the drive unit, where other battery solutions for leisure boats and luxury boats have focused on replacing the smaller generator that drives the accessories that drives the house lighting and electrical equipment and refrigerators and things like that. So is your marine battery pack effectively replacing both of those systems or are you focusing on the drive specifically?
Speaker 3:It'll replace all of it, so it'll be the drive and all the entertainment systems or whatever else you have on that boat. We're really looking to replace it all and in the end of the day, if you replace the drivetrain, that's where the core of your emissions come from, right. So we really want to kind of make a difference to decarbonization, as I keep talking about. So it's important to us, so that's the core focus and so that's why we're really going after that. It's not particularly a great answer, jay, but I gave it my best shot there.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's a solid answer. Okay, okay, all right, we'll go with that. Here's why I think it's a solid answer. Right, because when you talk to a Brunswick Marine and let's go back to CES 2022 when I talked to those guys and interviewed them, right? This is one of my first interviews for Electrek they were very adamant that energizing and electrifying the drive unit, while that was beneficial, was, at the end of the day, inefficient use of a limited resource in batteries, and what they were focusing on instead was replacing that generator with the battery pack, which is why that's always at the front of my mind.
Speaker 1:And what they talked about was that those generators, whether they're propane or diesel, were effectively unregulated emissions and that the carbon emissions there were actually significantly worse than you might think.
Speaker 1:You know, pound for pound, horsepower to horsepower, than the drive unit, which is one of those answers that probably pencils out and might be correct and might be technically correct right which, as we all know, is the best kind of correct but it's an unsatisfying response. So, even though your answer may not be the one that you wanted to hear it it may not be that 30 second sound bite that gets everybody to electrify it's a much more satisfying response to say like look, this thousand horsepower engine is the one making all the emissions, that's the one we have to electrify. So like thank you for saying it Well, and I think more than that. You know, when I was a young kid, I grew up in Miami, so we were around boats all the time, and one of the things that always struck me and I'm talking about four years old, five years old I vividly remember that sheen of oil on the top of the water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was like a rainbow kind of purple and easy thing, and I used to look at that and I used to think it was beautiful. And now, knowing what I know now, I should have been horrified. I should have been absolutely horrified at what I was seeing. But I'll ask you a question. In this way, throughout Europe, we're starting to see certain lakes, especially freshwater lakes, implementing no internal combustion engine bands or internal combustion engine bands and pushing those motors and those boats out of the lake to preserve that environmental kind of aspect of it, to preserve the wildlife, to preserve the fishing game. We are starting to see some of that in Canada the wildlife, to preserve the fishing game. We are starting to see some of that in Canada. We're starting to see some of that in California and certain lakes. Do you anticipate seeing more and more of that regulation, or do you simply think that people who live on the water don't want oil and diesel and gross fuel in the water?
Speaker 3:I think it'd probably be a bit of both, joe, in full transparency. So I think regulation will come, and it needs to come and needs to come faster. So I think there will be regulation. But I also think that consumers are starting to understand the importance of climate change and the importance to protect the environmental environment around us. So I do think that consumers will continue to get more and more invested into these decarb challenges and these decarb solutions that are available.
Speaker 3:So we believe that with EVOA, you have the ability to have a completely clean powertrain solution for these electric vessels and actually have performance that's equivalent or even, to some cases, better than the existing kind of internal combustion engine solutions. The other thing, joe, is that when you've got these kind of cleaning solutions, you can change the way you use them too right. So rather than feeling like you have to then kind of take your, your boat at the, in your, in your lake house, at the end of your garden, to a pontoon to go and refuel up for the weekend, you have the ability to put a charger at the end of your garden to a pontoon to go and refuel up for the weekend. You have the ability to put a charger at the end of your garden, you charge up your boat. You don't have to go anywhere. So it gives you the opportunity to kind of from a consciousness, you're looking after the environment around you. But it also simplifies and makes your user experience much better too, so we're very excited to partner with Ivar on this.
Speaker 1:All of this is going to be coming out of a new manufacturing facility that is in Detroit. Obviously, from the American folklore, stuff gets built in Detroit. That's where engines come from. It's the Motor City, right. So you guys manufacturing these power packs effectively where for the last 100 years we've been building horsepower I, I think, is symbolically significant as a australian company, as someone from the uk, as a brit, if you will, um, does fortescue buy into? Uh, does fortescue buy into that myth and do they see themselves kind of reinvigorating and adding to that mythology? Or, you know, was it something boring like tax incentives that led you there?
Speaker 3:no, no, not at all. I mean, yes, we've got a good tax incentive plan from detroit, and you know the michigan team, so that's incredibly great too. You know and I don't want to underplay that they were they're incredibly supportive of us coming to there. But equally, we want to be part of the Detroit Renaissance, right, we do. We absolutely want to be there. The facility that we're establishing is next to where the Model T was first manufactured.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 3:It's great to see that change and that revival of the industry in a completely different way, and the reason that we want to come to Detroit is a lot of our customers are in the US. They're looking for made-in-America solutions and we want to be there for them, right? So what we're incredibly excited about here is that this high-energy marine pack is the first of many, right. It really is the first product to utilize our scalable battery module technology, which allows us to really create scalable and customized solutions for a whole raft of applications in mobility. So this is it's a great launchpad for us, joe, but this is just the start. So we're incredibly excited about putting our roots down properly in Detroit.
Speaker 1:I love it. Andrew, we're coming to the end of our time commitment here. I want to be respectful of that. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I hope it's only your first appearance and it'll be the first of many. It looks like production at your new Fortis Q0 facility is expected to begin Q4 of next year. To begin Q4 of next year. Hopefully many more announcements between now and then. For people who are interested in what you guys are doing and want to follow the company's efforts at decarbonization, what's the best way for them to follow along and reach out to you?
Speaker 3:Well, I think certainly, kind of the LinkedIn channel is amazing, right, so LinkedIn and our website is amazing, so there's lots of videos and posts that go up there, the progress we're making and it's lots of progress, joe. So, whether that be the mine haul truck, whether it be an Infinity electric train, a huge amount of growth as well as solutions that we're deploying. We're incredibly excited about these scalable solutions that I'm talking to you about today and really putting down our roots in Detroit. We believe these solutions can really help high-performance automotive, leisure and marine customers, right, and we're certainly here to help. Please, if any listener or anybody wants to kind of reach out to me, they're more than welcome anytime, right? So please connect and I'd love to talk to you and see how we can help you decarbonize.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. We'll put all of your personal contact information, social security number and bank accounts online. And, yeah, the best part is we do this unscripted. I know I don't even know how we get through these, but hey, andrew, thank you for being on the show. That was awesome, michael, why?
Speaker 2:Listen. No, he's a good dude. I'm going to tell you right now that product that they're putting out there is top notch. It's first class. It always has been. It's got a lot of stuff that is overlooked in a lot of other OEMs. If you take the time to walk around a Liebherr product similar to what we were talking about with the Volvo guys they all have their own things, but it's very well thought out, very well thought out product and you only get that by listening to the people that actually run it. And you only get that from listening to the people exactly where they run it. Not just some guy that thinks he knows what you need, but somebody on the actual site running it right there day to day. And I give Lieber a lot of credit for that because absolutely that statement was correct. They can look at a lot of other stuff on the market and go, nah, nah, this ain't a truck, this is a truck oh, oh, we're defending it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's what I meant by it. Yes, yeah, I'll tell you. I mean, you just use the ears of the ams. You get a lee bear truck, you pull it up there, you go yeah, this is the truck. The other one's sitting over there. It's got to be brought out for competitive demo reasons, got to get three competitive quotes and all that stuff. Meanwhile, guys like andrew and myself are sitting there going why don't you, uh, pull it around over there so we can get some shade, exactly? And then they stand in the shade from the other competitor's truck and watch the Liebherr perform all day. It's perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that happens, especially in some of these mining operations. You know, it was funny. I was talking to Andrew about it before we did the recording and he was laughing with me saying that he actually listened to a couple of the episodes. I thought he was making it up and then he started quoting stuff back to me. I was horrified that somebody that real in the industry was actually listening to these. But, piss judgment.
Speaker 2:Do you know how many people comment to me about that? They're like, oh, the heavy equipment podcast, that's you. I was like, yeah, Well, two things get asked all the time. I'll tell you what it is. One who the hell is Piss Jugman, and how did you find that? And then the other one is why do they call you Hot Mike? It's like because my mic is always hot.
Speaker 1:It's always on Joe spends a significant amount of time editing out what I'm about to talk about and what I'm about to say to say if people understood that we record about two hours of material and edit it back to a tight 42 minutes, they'd be like, what do you guys do for four hours on that thing?
Speaker 2:like what's a lot of, uh, a lot of um I know joe's wife wants to know what's going on for two hours in that room he doesn't care.
Speaker 1:She thinks I'm in the bathroom. Oh, that's true. She's like oh, he, just, you know he goes to poop. He's in there for 40 minutes on the phone. God knows what he's doing, I don't care. She thinks I'm in the bathroom. Oh, that's true. She's like oh, he, just, you know he goes to poop. He's in there for 40 minutes on the phone, god knows what he's doing, I don't care.
Speaker 1:Finally get some peace and quiet without that idiot in my living room. Then you return and take the remote. Can I see? I swear man, I, I will. I've said this before. Uh, I don't know if I've said this on the show. I'm pretty convinced that she thinks I'm some kind of sheepdog, because at night if we're watching a show even if I'm watching it like I'm into the show, I'm watching it. When she decides it's time to go to bed, she didn't say anything she turns off the TV, gets up, turns off the light and goes upstairs and just leaves me sitting there in the dark, like well, you can follow me or not, I don't care, oh I heard this.
Speaker 2:I heard this incredible story. We were talking about this two brake trailers on a job site. Okay, listen to this yeah, this ties in two brake trailers.
Speaker 2:On a job site, one guy brings a tv in and his whole crew's sitting in there and they're watching the news. Another guy says, oh, that, oh, that's great. They go to Walmart, get some $90 TV, they bring it into the job trailer. On the other side, they're literally sharing a common five-foot wide, four-foot wide wooden walkway. Sure, they have the TV on there. They're watching movies.
Speaker 2:Windows are aligned so you can see back and forth. And, like on the movie Grumpy Old Men, the guy leans over he forth. And, like on the movie grumpy old men, the guy leans over. He's got a, he's got a universal remote and just as this, this stuff would good. Good, he would turn the tv off and the other guy's job trailer and you want to talk about irate have a bunch of millwrights and they're trying to take apart a tv and figure out why the electricians are screwing with them. Oh yeah, this is, this is bad. Meanwhile, these guys are in there talking about heavy Thousand ton press. They're in there trying to align this baby within a few thousand so it sets everything up the way it's supposed to and doesn't, you know, bore itself a hole into the center of the earth from a miscalculated impact, right, oh yeah, and they're mind blown already. They just need some peace and quiet. They want to watch Wheel of Fortune and the guy goes I'd like to buy a vowel. And they're waiting, and then it turns off.
Speaker 1:That's true, see. Now, that is why the road rage conversation is so critical, because when you get one of these guys all worked up like that, he's liable to reach over into his Milwaukee M18 fuel, dual battery, electric chainsaw and go to town on these idiots.
Speaker 2:Oh no, without a doubt. Without a doubt. I do like that segue. Yeah, without a doubt, that's for sure. He's going to build. See, it's going to happen. Missouri will take that brand new. They haven't released it yet and everybody should keep an eye out for this. Milwaukee has a backpack leaf blower coming out with a slab battery on it instead of a gasoline-powered one. Now still beat them to the marker with this. But Milwaukee refined it a little bit further and I've seen some of these units. They're very protected. They won't let them out of their sight, but I did see it. They lightened it up and some millwright that's pissed off at the world is going to turn that into a Gatling gun.
Speaker 3:It's going to be like RoboCop.
Speaker 2:Better alive you gatling gun. It's gonna be like robocop. We better alive you're shimming with me.
Speaker 1:We could take one of those and we could build a legit nerf minigun that goes through about 1100 rounds a minute, listen.
Speaker 2:You want to nerf miniguns. Gonna put a hole in a drywall. That's what we got people betty, sue over at the neighbor's house. While we get the kids rolling on this baby, we'll be shooting marbles attached to foam missiles.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I got a paintball gun that we got upgraded to about 17 joules. I'm not sure how much it is, but when it hit my back. I almost went down, dude. I was like oh, down immediately.
Speaker 2:I mean not to rip off, you know. Back to the future one more time.
Speaker 1:But you know, when this baby hits 17 jewels you're gonna see some serious bills but uh, yeah, I mean, you know it's funny I I did this uh article on the milwaukee's really doing a good job with the electric job site equipment one of the best in the industries.
Speaker 1:They really are, and it's funny because I think for a long time they were kind of resistant to the electric tools. They were kind of more known for air tools I'm talking going back into the nineties, right and it really seems like they're going all out with this. They have a ton of new accessories coming out all the time. I get stuff in my inbox you know about, like Milwaukee battery powered, you know, different radios and shop lights and things like that, and they're really kind of taking it seriously. And then I get these other things and I don't want to. I don't want to necessarily pick on these guys, but it's hard to take Makita seriously. When the last three Makita ads I've gotten emailed to me were for a cordless espresso machine, a camp radio and some blender type thing, I'm like what are you doing with these things on a job site? Like, are you guys even a hardware tool company anymore? What the hell's going on over there? You're looking for that Makita coffee maker right now, aren't you?
Speaker 2:Well, I was. I'm like where did you find this? We have all this stuff that gets thrown at us and I have not seen some of this stuff you've rambled off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got. There's a lot of frivolous crap that that people have to produce, but a milwaukee coffee maker that's battery powered I could see that stop. I could see that we talked about coffee makers in the last one. What you need is two things For the Euro guys, you need a forged battery-powered 12.0 battery plugged into a teapot. You're an idiot. And then for the US guys, you need a coffee maker powered by the same thing, but that is a percolator. It's got a little grinder pump in the bottom of it. You know, when uh joe bob there likes to build uh coffee, when I say build, because it's thick enough you can chew it. Then you can village, pump that back over again and re-brew it and when you get done you end up with a nice espresso that's like.
Speaker 1:That's like the masons they make the, uh, the coffee so thick, they just use it as mortar.
Speaker 2:Oh, but yeah, look at this, I just I guess I just sent it to you.
Speaker 1:It's the dcm 501z for our british and australian followers here. But yeah, it's a 12 volt max cxt lithium ion cordless coffee maker from makita and it's, uh, just absolutely baffling. That's not even their only one, they have an 18 volt version I got nothing yeah well you know what, though?
Speaker 2:that thing's compact that might fit in the cab of the new uh tb395 wheeled excavator.
Speaker 1:Those wheeled excavators, man, we talked about this a little bit on the last show, but those are really making a comeback. You know, they went away for a while and then volvo brought theirs out and we got. We got to play with that a little bit at volvo days. Ah, see, another plug for them. And uh, you know, now this new one and I I can't pronounce this, but it's takuchi, I guess is how takuchi, takuchi, takuchi.
Speaker 2:Now and then. I mean, it depends on who you ask for, it can be pronounced. Touch my coochie, it can be pronounced.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how I always knew. I was like oh look, the new touch my coochie.
Speaker 2:That's another one that I hear a lot on the job sites. I mean, you know.
Speaker 1:We'll censor all of these, yeah we're not going to be disrespectful to the.
Speaker 2:Takahuchi guys, because, as a purchaser of Takahuchi for many years, many years, that wheeled excavator is badass. It should be used in many municipalities across the US. Where else are you going to get a small little guy like that on wheels? Volvo, they have one I. I don't know if itachi's selling one right now. I think they are in other markets, but not in north america. Because, if you, you know here's the thing about takuchi's release it says and there's a key word in what I'm about to say here it says takuchi's tb395w wheeled excavator arrives in north america yeah, arrives, they've had it. They released it to the north american market. Yeah, takuichi's TB395W wheeled excavator arrives in North America yeah, arrives, they've had it. They released it to the North American market, yeah.
Speaker 1:Hitachi has a couple, but they're all in either Europe or Africa. They're not available in the States.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's a lot of people countrywide that could use that thing, I think more than people realize I really do Until I had spent some time in a wheeled excavator again, I hadn't been in a wheeled excavator probably six or seven years and when I got back in that thing I realized I was like dang, there are so many uses for this, so many things you could do with this and not tear stuff up, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're not going to use it as a peat bog and go out there and dig your way over to your neighbor's house. That's not what you're going to use it for. Select work, hard ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I also like this because you know, especially the Takahuchi one, it has two different steer modes. You can steer it with just the two wheels or you can do four wheel steering and really turn this thing around in a tight circle. Four-wheel steering and really turn this thing around in a tight circle. And I think those two things are going to enable you to put this into places where you might not think something this big could go.
Speaker 2:Well, again, municipalities, if you get to get behind something. You're trying to work your way through some small alleyway and you can't move a million things and it's just you and two other guys from the city garage or just a small utility contractor or a landscaper. You got to drive over something and you got to fix something with this thing. There you go tree guys, tree removal guys, avante, avante. Used to have a four-wheeled machine like this, but not like an excavator, but those are. Those are good machines too no, I like that.
Speaker 1:I was laughing at you because, uh, I was. I was sitting here talking with uh, my father-in-law and we were talking about a tree that we've got in the yard that is starting to loom over the house rather uh menacingly, so I may hire it out, I might. He made the comment he goes you got to get an arborist in here to pull that down. I said you don't need an arborist, you just need a tree guy. And like, what I meant by that was like you don't need some formal anybody, you just need somebody with a big old saw to come rip this thing down.
Speaker 2:You don't need somebody to shape that baby back into something worth keeping.
Speaker 1:No, just get that thing out of there just get that thing out of there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see a weird world of uh equipment going to those guys. Look at all that stuff that those guys climb trees with.
Speaker 1:We gotta do a whole forestry episode because those guys are incredible. Man, every once in a while I get sucked into some tiktok thread or something, where this massive arm comes through, rips a tree out of the ground and takes all the branches off in about a second and a half and and I don't know, it's real exciting it does something for me, I got to admit.
Speaker 2:Sick mind, joe, it's so hard.
Speaker 1:Well, I think we've peaked with that. That's the end of this one. We barely had anything in here. Let's close out with a word from our unofficial sponsors here Chase and Sanborn Coffee.
Speaker 2:By the way, they do still seem to be a real company. We should probably reach out to them. Uh, I think we should sue us.
Speaker 1:You know, we need to send them a bill, send them an invoice. Just, yonas, did you sponsor the heavy equipment podcast? They say here we owe thirty six thousand dollars what did you say?
Speaker 2:his name was?
Speaker 1:Eunice oh, eunice, that's from Mama's Family. That's a deep cut.
Speaker 2:That was deep. I used to watch that. I forgot all about that Great Of course you used to watch it.
Speaker 1:She'll get on there. Naomi, you get on out of here.
Speaker 2:She's like 30 years old when she did that skit yeah, she was.
Speaker 1:She did that. That show ran for like 15 seasons, dude, because it was so relatable I don't know who it was relatable to, but yes, it was you had the stupid son-in-law.
Speaker 2:You know they called them. They called the daughter skeeter. That was was always funny. I forgot about Skeeter you call your wife Skeeter, that's it. You thought you were a lap dog before. Wait till you get back on the floor. You'll be sitting on the floor.
Speaker 1:Won't be allowed on the couch. You ain't allowed up here, Skeeter.
Speaker 2:The only thing worse would be if you pooped on the rug.
Speaker 1:Oh man last thing, I swear we'll sign off. I read a tweet from a guy the other day. He said about four years ago I was showering with my wife and I thought I'd be funny and try to fart on her and I misjudged it and shit all over her leg. Now we're getting divorced and I can't help be funny and try to fart on her and I misjudged it and shit all over her leg. Now we're getting divorced and I can't help but feel these two things are related.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Well, one wrong projectile shit could end a relationship. That's probably accurate. Whether it's in the car, in the shower or outside, it's never good.
Speaker 1:It doesn't really matter where it acts. You poop your pants above the age of 30, someone's going to side eye you. Wow, that's terrible. Why don't we just close it off with the theme from Mama's Family and hope for the best in terms of legal? ©. Bf-watch TV 2021.
