Howell, NJ - Meet and Greet 11/10/2019

I’m not even following what your sayin..

Rover mm yea no. Anyone can be a hunter here that asks for advise then does whatever he wants. I’ve watched it unfold and I’m not the only one. No expectations of anyone “to be on my level”. I def do things to the beat of my own drum.

 

This thread proves that Overlanding has turned into a parking lot popularity contest. The clientele of Pepboys is literally gonna buy a snorkel held on with 3m tape and drive right to the closest dirt parking lot and take a picture for the gram. They will never actually go on a trip because they will be scared of getting their “rig” scratched. They will never go on a trip because they can’t find locations of “the good stuff” on forums and have no drive to just head out into the wilderness and explore. Guys that are building legit drag cars, pulling trucks, mud trucks, rock crawlers all buy parts from a specialty shop dealing with directly what they are trying to build. They don’t go to a shop that specializes in plastic chrome stick on letters and shitty chrome exhaust tips that rust out the first time you start the accord you got from your grandma. Pepboys selling “overland” parts is going to be like the wave of “tuner” cars that came after the fast and the furious. There will be legit vehicles that are built with quality parts and those with 3m tape hood scoops and plastic chrome nick nacks

 

well a lot of us here look up to your truck build and your trip reports, maybe just try not shaming us all for trying to beat to the drum of chux

 

pepboys is good for what it is and terrible for what its not.... pretty simple

i personally rather walk into a pepboys and walk out with my needed cleaning supplies before sitting online and ordering via Amazon in hopes of my same day delivery

 

No clue. Never been to a Pepboys, never seen a Pepboys as there aren’t any even remotely close to me. If I had to guess they are cut from the same cloth as autozone, advance, oh oh oh orielys and sell cardone, bwd, ac Delco and similar.

 

How this thread turned into a bashing contest is beyond me. If it's not for you then don't come.

 

With leds. Gotta have leds.




Just wanted to contribute

 

Probably b/c they know what Pep Boys has been. Personally I used to only go there but have since switched to Autozone or Napa b/c pep boys store employees were useless. I had a buddy work for PB corporate years ago that tried to bring the whole tuner thing to the stores. I see the same happening here. especially in NJ where there isn't a big off road crowd. It's tuner kids who want to drag race in Newark or some other undefined group who rocks 22s on their Wrangler. Either way, holding meets can't hurt and at least it brings some like minded people together.

 

Just to play devil's advocate with myself, and to try to ignore my hatred for parking lot meets I will add some stuff that I think would be good to have at these places.

Replacement uniballs, replacement spherical bearings, and other typical replacement items that many Tacoma owners have to replace pretty often. Colby valves would be another cool thing to carry. Heavy duty u bolts/u bolt flip kits too. Sucks to be part way through an install and need to wait for shit like this for a couple of days.

 

I'd like them to carry good recovery gear at least. I doubt people will drop a grand on armor, bumpers or winches. But having some off road recovery gear would be useful and maybe some things to make camping aka "overlanding" more comfortable.

 

so you’re expecting every pep boys store to have a complete line of all the expensive mods for every popular vehicle right now, just so you can go in there and touch a bumper before buying it?

My concern in “pep boys overlanders” is the kind of people that come with it. The pines have been under siege from environmental groups for as long as I can remember. Having more pep boys customers feeling brave in their Jeeps will likely add to the amount of 4wd vehicles trespassing and disobeying tread lightly principles.
Do you have any pamphlets on responsible 4wheeling in your stores or lists of legal places to go off-roading such as rausch or aoaa? Or are you just trying to profit without thought to what it might mean?

exactly. When I get my shocks rebuilt I send them to professionals. When I buy parts for my truck, I buy them from professionals. No offense to pep boys employees, but I wouldn’t trust them to install my windshield wipers, let alone tune shocks or install a locker.

You think 4 months is a long lead time for custom shit built by small businesses?

Wrangler parts are cheap because most of them are made in China. I’ll stick to spending more and supporting small American businesses.

and let’s be clear.. this isn’t about “opening up the market for Toyota trucks”

 

On the contrary. I've seen dozens of "made in america" jeep parts that dont cost a mortgage payment. And have also experienced the quality of those parts being great. Its also supply and demand. Comparable bumpers are hundreds less on jeeps then they are on Toyotas. I've had 2 different ones in my jeep. Welds were perfect. Powder coat on point. Made in California. Took me 2 weeks on average to get.

 

Your all arguing about bullshit and I'm all

 

Looking forward to it!

 

I’m just going to look out over this medieval town, from this medieval fort tower for awhile. Then probably go drink more Brunello Reserva

 

For some reason I couldn’t find this with a guy in pep boys uniform, but you get the idea.


I still like to go to see what you guys are planning on setting up. Will there be food truck or any kind of food nearby?

 

Yeah! Food options!


I’m thinking..... tacos!

 

There's a five guys right next door. And there lots of restaurants and shit nearby.

 

Well have food but waiting to see what the weather is like before we decide on what.

 

Sounds good. If my truck is working I’ll bring it up otherwise might roll up in Honda lol