The Romance of Owning a Vintage Truck
Published September 23, 2022 · 16:32 · 279,398 views
About This Video
The 1987 diesel Toyota Land Cruiser overheats going 50 mph up a slight incline on the way to its own engine swap. The thermostat is in the red before Van reaches the desert. If he blows a head gasket, the whole budget goes to towing.
Three romantic reasons for this truck. A dentist couple at the end of his childhood street: one red, one blue, sometimes both parked there. A private school girl named Martha McConnell who had an 80-series Land Cruiser when they were 17, and Van drove around with her as if she had unlimited access to the world. And Eric Good, co-owner of the Park and creator of Area: the 1980s club that usurped Studio 54. Who drove a red 62-series and later founded a turtle conservancy. Then everywhere Van traveled: the Sahara, Zanzibar, Moshi Tanzania. Land Cruisers. Jerry Seinfeld said it to Bill Burr about his Prius: have you no soul? There is no rational explanation. The romance is the explanation.
Transcript
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free trial at set app.com undefined undefined without conflict our stories are boring and I pray that this story is a boring
one [Music] LA traffic does not count as a conflict cuz it's too boring so there are two reasons why I'm undefined undefined
replacing this engine and I'm experiencing them both right now I'm not even in Pasadena yet
going up I don't know a few hundred feet not very steep incline okay I'm going about 55 M an hour all already the
engine is overheating if you can see that gauge on the left
there now we're approaching the mountains which brings us to the second reason I'm replacing the
engine and that's the gutless of this 1987 diesel 28 stock Toyota
engine so I'm at almost 3,000 RPM which is revving the engine high for a diesel
the outside numbers are kilomet per hour the inside numbers are miles per hour I don't know if you can read the inside I'm basically at Full Throttle my foot's
on the floor and we're going 50 m an hour up this uh Mountain Pass towards
barow yeah so now I'm driving with the trucks and in the low Lane at like 45 M
hour my thermostat is in the red which I still haven't gotten to the desert yet I still haven't got to the
baking hottest place on Earth desert uh and if I blow a head gasket out here
I have two gallons of water with me but then I got to figure out how to ship this truck from the road to mon Anana
and then I sort of blow my budget doing that I blow a big chunk of budget so I got to get this thing
there and that's why I've given myself three days for a two-day Drive
[Music] welcome to [Music] Utah LaQuinta just like Louis CK here's a helpful list of places to stay oh great I get to live in a
[Music] LaQuinta I've driven this Land Cruiser in the rain maybe three or four times we'll see what undefined undefined
[Music] happens so I've got a little time lapse camera set up on my temperature gauge so that you can see sort of what my brain is doing on this
trip which is don't blow a head gasket don't blow a head gasket and sometimes you have to slow
down to 35 but thank God these trucks slow down to 35 too so that I don't get rear undefined undefined
ended so I guess the question is why the hell do I drive this truck why this
truck why a 1987 diesel Toyota Land Cruiser and there's no rational
explanation if I was purely rational I would just drive a Prius but like Jerry Seinfeld said to
Bill Burr when he found out that Bill Burr drove a Prius have I no soul
[Music] and so I think it's three reasons why I drive this car three romantic reasons irrational one there was a dentist's office at the end of my street the dentist and his wife both had these cars
new when I was a kid one of them had a red one one of them had a blue one so sometimes a red one was parked there sometimes a blue one was parked there
sometimes they both parked there so that probably planted the seed and
then I always was attracted to and had crushes on the private school girls Isabelle is a private school girl there
was this private school girl named Martha McConnell and she had an 80 series which is the um the series after
this one the bubbly one when we were like you know 17 it wasn't hers it was
her family's but she to me she had unlimited use of it and we would cruise around these kids and this thing was like
$440,000 in in 1994 or something like this and astonishing to
me and also in New York City when I moved to New York City there were like two big shots that I had access to Sean
mcferson and Eric good and they owned this restaurant called the park and it was kind of like a club and it was the
first exclusive place that I could get into and I remember going to a party there one night and Matt Damon was
there and Sean mcferson drove a red one of these I can't I think it had
the square headlights I can't remember and then Eric good who was co-owner of the park and he owns the maritime Hotel
I've worked with him he holds a he holds a high station in my mind he had when he was young when he was in his 20s he had the hottest club in New York City called
ARA and every I think month ARA Cho changed its theme and everyone in the80s
went to area it usurped Studio 54 all the 8S Heroes would go to that
and it was it was Eric's cre so he when he made a little money he started a a Turtle Conservancy trying to
preserve amphibians and reptiles uh up in ohigh is the headquarters and he invited Isabelle and
me up there before X was born before we had this car and he had a red Toyota
Land Cruiser 62 series and then everywhere I've been you know once
I started learning how to travel internationally basically all the really exotic places I've
been you know the Sahara Desert or you know Zanzibar or Moshi Tanzania
mamazi Land Cruisers Land Cruisers everywhere on Earth so I don't know it's sort of a
symbol of success it's a symbol of fortitude these things last forever and
um unfortunately it's not a symbol of undefined undefined
[Music] speed I don't know if the camera can pick this up but there's some kind of foam what the hell is
that now can you see the foam it's like snow almost maybe it's salt cuz it's Salt Lake City actually
Provo maybe it's salt look at this it looks like I'm driving on
snow I got allterrain tires I'll be fine snow mud foam
[Music] undefined undefined and I was talking to Isabelle last night and I was like you know what this is crazy that I'm driving the thousand miles or so up through the mountains
with this risky car and I got a kid and the only thing I can say is that
it's fun this is fun I enjoy this I love [Music] this the first Land Cruiser ever sold in America [Music]
Idaho welcome to Idaho [Music] undefined undefined [Music] this was a good idea driving the truck instead of shipping it half as expensive for me to
drive it even with all the food fuel hotels and I think switching the engine is a good idea so for the last few
months every time there was a strange smell or there was a drops of oil underneath the engine or I had
to you know reroute the oil return and it didn't seal up quite right and is
there enough oil in it doesn't matter as long as I make it to Boseman none of that stuff matters
like I smelled something weird at the last gas up and it's like I don't care just got just got to get it there so I was
just thinking this is a good [Music] idea getting into the mountains near Yellowstone just passed a sign that said we're at 6600 ft of Al
itude this thing is basically dead on balls struggling at
40 engine's running hotter than a boiling Kettle welcome to
[Music] Montana so this guy just offered to buy my his name is Brandt this the first one in the wild I've seen on the whole trip so he just offered to buy my old engine and I think I'll take him up on
that you have arrived we made it man Overland Outfitters is like a few miles away even if the engine blows up right now they can just tow it there or
they can come get it good old engine still got a lot of life in her
but it's time to move on goodbye 2H turbo you served me
[Music] undefined undefined well I'm here man your destination is on the left another dream come true now I'm
going up and getting my Cummins 2.8 turbo diesel engine and I'm just you know for a year
I've been looking at YouTube videos like 0 to 60 cumin R 2.8 and the man Steven who owns Overland Cruisers who's doing
the swap he said he has my exact car with the same setup I'm getting and he said no problem over these mountains
passes no problem 65 no problem you know the speed limit's 80 here where I am on
15 and uh I'm going about 66 right now but struggling at 45 over the passes and
where's my yeah and I'm right on the border of overheating even though it's raining and kind of cool
[Music] out oh no all right push the so the car won't start no it it does this it does this is one of the first things that inspired the new engine come on
sweetheart this week on the patreon a conversation with one of my peers the link is right there
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Setapp uses
- 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser essential
- Cummins R2.8 turbo diesel recommends
- Prius mentions
- LaQuinta mentions
- Paste (app) mentions
- Vivid (app) mentions
- PDF Squeezer (app) mentions
- PullTube (app) mentions
- CleanMyMac mentions
People Referenced
Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, Martha McConnell, Sean McPherson, Eric Goode, Matt Damon, Louis CK, Isabelle, Brandt