Transcript 

February 13, 2025, 6:02PM 

Taraneh Niakan   0:05
Good morning, everyone.
Or it’s morning here in California.
Thank you for joining us today.
As you all know, we launched a brand of product lines, Tara Guard about few years ago and it’s been taking off really well.
We have rock sliders, steps and bumpers. The product line is expanding pretty rapidly, especially for those.
In the off road and overland scene, currently our applications are.
Subaru Outback and we’re expanding into the Crosstrek Toyota Land Cruiser and even have some stuff for the Ford Bronco.
So today we have Mike, who’s going to be hosting this and he has two of our product engineers who will be who have played a very crucial role in the development of the in manufacturing of the Tara Guard product line.
So I’ll hand it over. If you have any questions, feel free to put it in the Q&A chat or the chat and we’ll try our best to answer them.
Thank you so much. And also feel free if you want to send this invitation to anyone else in your organization.
Just forward them the e-mail that you received and have them click register now.
They should still be able to join OK.
Thank you so much. 

Mike Santa Cruz   1:27
Hey, thanks, charney.
Hey, guys. Welcome, John Gray.
Morning, James. For venture. 

John Gray   1:32
Morning. 

James Provencher   1:34
Hey, good morning. 

Mike Santa Cruz   1:35
How you guys doing? 

James Provencher   1:36
Doing well. 

Mike Santa Cruz   1:37
Trying to stay dry, a little wet out here in SoCal. Not so sunny in so Cal.
Welcome guys and welcome.
Everybody joined us today. As Terry mentioned, our Tara Guard product line has been in full force within the last two years, but has really started ramping up the last 18 months, particularly at the.
This year, Seema show.
So if you were able to attend this year’s SEMA show and you were able to check out the AFE booth, you noticed a couple of vehicles out there and one of which was our LC-250, the LC-250, the R-250 also known as.
The chassis code on the Toyota.
One of the things featured aside from the intake exhaust, of course. The scorcher.
We had some sway away suspension product out on the vehicle.
So we had a lot of nice goodies on there.
We also kind of had some bolt ONS and some add-ons as well accessory wise and segwaying to the Tara Guard line that is an accessory product line for AFE. For those of you who don’t know and one of the things you may have noticed is the front bow.
Bar on the LC-250.
So from that it’s it kind of a spawn from a lot of the bumpers that were coming out for the the Subaru platforms. And that’s why we got John and James here today.
We’re gonna go a little bit more deeper into the detailed information on not just the bull bar for the LC-250, but also the bumpers and some of the other Tara Guard products and what’s coming down the pipe as far as you know, new products and new.
Applications. So let’s jump into it.
Again, welcome guys.
Thanks again for joining us.
So just again a little quick recap on Tara, Guard Tara Guard products are pretty much a full line of bolt on accessories, correct? 

James Provencher   3:30
Yeah. 

John Gray   3:30
Yes. 

Mike Santa Cruz   3:31
OK, so so all I’m gonna. I’ll. I’ll go ahead and question it per per person. But just ’cause, I love the stereo. 

James Provencher   3:31
Yes. 

Mike Santa Cruz   3:38
You guys are In Sync. That’s great.
But we’ll make it simple on on you guys.
So John, on the Taraguar line, it started out with the with the tub rails for the Jeep and it kind of just blew up from there.
What were some of the things that you guys were?
Your team was thinking about in developing some of these products coming out? 

John Gray   3:57
Well, I think the the first thing was.
Basically, I had a Subaru, an Outback, and I before I bought it I had a lift kit, wheels and tires, and so the first time anyone saw it here, it was already lifted, had the wheels and tires on it and stuff, and we were kind of looking at.
Some exterior products, so we decided to try to do some.
Bumpers.
For it, we wanted to get a better have some better recovery points and stuff on the the Outback as well as a little more protection.
So we started with a bumper and we started with some actual.
Steps because I always have stuff on my roof of my car.
So I was actually looking at steps to be able to get into the.
Or to access the rooftop storage.
So we kinda started working on step and it kinda let into a rock slider.
So it’s all just kinda culminated to offering several different products. 

Mike Santa Cruz   5:14
So.
For those of you who do know about AFE, we pretty much develop any product that’s on any vehicle that’s in our parking lot ’cause. It’s the easily most accessible to start working on. And as John mentioned, he had the vehicle and his perfect fit.
Johnson added cyclist and outdoor guy.
Camping guy. Overland guy.
So when he like he said, he mentioned that by having his Subaru in the parking lot.
The team just kind of just looked at it and said, you know, first thing they notice on the Subaru right was.
There’s no steps.
The steps turned into sliders.
So that was a a perfect segue into that and that the bumpers, what was the thought about coming up with a Tara guard bumpers for the for your Subaru? 

John Gray   6:01
While we were looking to be able to have recovery points on the front of it, they’re not that easily accessible for the factory recovery points, so we wanted to move them out front and we started doing that. And just one thing led to another and we ended up.
Having a bumper and then we go well, let’s have make it a light bar so we can put lights on it and then.
All of a sudden, James said.
Hey, why don’t we put a winch on this and?
So that night I had a winch and we were modifying the bumper to incorporate a winch into it. 

Mike Santa Cruz   6:38
Wow, OK.
So it started off with one purpose, but it now sounds like it’s a multi purpose like a Swiss army knife.
Cool. So on the Terra narpadics, are they more for like off roading over landing?
I kind of brought this up in one of our other webinars and everybody’s take on it is little different.
It’s all perception, but it’s also reality.
The the difference between like an over landing versus like an off road. So as a terror guard more for like an Overlander or for off road or for both. 

John Gray   7:10
James. 

James Provencher   7:11
But you know it’s it’s funny ’cause the off road marketplace is so diverse that I would not say our tarigar product is geared towards a hyper aggressive king of the Hammers kind of guy who’s gonna go do extreme off roading. The average Weekender who’s gonna go do fire.
Roads and his Subaru. Or go to a remote fishing area and needs to go on unbeaten paths that are.
You know our products are suited for that as long as well as the over landing market where there’s a lot of product that’s being put on roofs, you need a lot of lighting for night time.
You know, to just to go out and adventure at night time. You need a ton of lighting and everybody’s storing stuff on the roof.
So getting rooftop access is part of the key to our sliders and steps. 

Mike Santa Cruz   8:08
So let’s go back to the bumpers real quick.
We kind of mentioned a lot of the products that you guys have developed under that Tara Guard exterior accessory line for you got the bumpers, the bull bar, which we also kind of referred as light bars, rock sliders, steps, tub rail covers.
So all of those products that are falling into that family, as you mentioned, James, they’re they’re not necessarily for the aggressive off roader specifically, but for the one who is a little bit more like an all around her correct like not just over landing but likes a little Bush.
Kind of going in the not so commonly used trails. 

James Provencher   8:52
You know, I I think that our product is geared towards anybody who’s an off road enthusiast and that includes overlanders and you know people are just using their vehicle for recreation.
But yeah, they’re not intended to be for the extreme off road guy. 

Mike Santa Cruz   9:11
Right. OK. That makes sense. And with the market, the big shift in the last couple years towards overlanding it, it makes great sense to just migrate towards that and and propose newer products. And it seems like the way you guys are going about developing products are more of.
A practicality or a solution to a problem I think is what I’m trying to say so.
Excuse me, as John mentioned, you know access to the rooftop, there was no step.
Upper or easy way to access the rooftop, especially if you have a lifter leveled SUV or CUV?
Not everybody.
6 foot five and you know can just reach up there.
You got to get a little a little boost up just to get access to that rooftop. And yes, you mentioned, John, that there’s a lot of people, more people, not just overlanding, but a lot of people using, like storage and cargo bins and roof racks on top of.
Their vehicles and they really don’t have an access.
To not everybody’s gonna slap a ladder on the side of their car. So I think the steps make perfect sense. And by the way, if you haven’t checked him out, check. Go on afepower.com, check out the steps. They look like they came from the fact.
And again, we’re really gonna focus on the bumpers today, but those sliders and the rock guards, excuse me, the sliders and steps, they really do fit.
In the stock location without any modification.
But again, I’m gonna go back into the bumpers.
So these products are really targeted like James mentioned, not so much for the Hartford off Roader, but for anybody who wants to overland and and go on the off the beaten path.
So, John, what other vehicle platforms do you guys look at when you’re looking at developing the Terra Guard exterior products? 

John Gray   11:04
Well, we’re looking at all Cu, vs and SUVs and trucks.
But we have to put our focus on something, so we.
Currently we’re looking at.
We’ve done the Bronco.
We’re working on a got the sliders in process for the Bronco, for the Land Cruiser we have the.
Full bar done for the Land Cruiser.
And we have one that we are in process on for the Bronco.
Next, we’re gonna get the Tacoma and forerunner.
So that one should be coming.
In the next probably next 1:45 quarters. 

Mike Santa Cruz   11:51
OK.
So kind of the same process as fit finish somewhat of a solution to a toeing point or a recovery point, but also something that you could maybe fix a winch to, but definitely have auxiliary lights. 

John Gray   12:09
Yes, it’s. It’s mainly the lighting. 

Mike Santa Cruz   12:11
OK. 

John Gray   12:12
The lighting being able to put better, easier access mounts so you can mount shackle, shackle mounts to it.
You know it.
It was mainly to get the shackle mounts out there and have a light bar, something with a little more protection on the front of the vehicle. 

Mike Santa Cruz   12:33
Yeah, hence the the bull bar.
Calculation bumper, etcetera. 

John Gray   12:37
Yes, correct. 

Mike Santa Cruz   12:40
So. So yeah, that was kind of like one of the questions I had in here.
So you know why the bumpers and it sounds like it was more for auxiliary lighting, but there’s also some other options and features that that are on each each bumper available for for these vehicle applications.
So lighting obviously is a is a big portion of it.
But also protecting the front end.
So on the bowl bar that we’re looking at right now, Terry’s got up on the shared screen.
So what are some of the features in in Benny’s of the LC-250 bull bar?
Nice piece.
That’s great. 

John Gray   13:20
Already gone?
Oh, or you can lights. You know we can put.
Several mounts for lights.
The shackle mounts.
The installation is fairly simple.
We mount to where the factory.
Tow hooks on and then we have a simple bracket that goes through the grill so you don’t have to remove anything to install it. 

Mike Santa Cruz   13:50
OK, so like the picture we’re looking at right now the tow hooks below, that’s not part of the bumper that’s actually on part of the chassis. 

John Gray   13:57
The shackles are an aftermarket shackle, but the mount is for those, so we’ve moved it forward about. 

Mike Santa Cruz   14:00
The toe looks. Yeah, OK.
Got it. 

John Gray   14:09
910 inches.
So it makes it a little easier to get to your recovery points.
But you will have to add the shackles. Whatever you design. Black, blue-green. 

Mike Santa Cruz   14:19
OK.
But you have the TOEFL. So you have the shackle.
Mount that’s accessible.
It’s it’s a better access accessible point access point for recovery than what the factory is. 

John Gray   14:31
Correct. 

Mike Santa Cruz   14:33
Are there any factory recovery points on that from the Land Cruiser? 

John Gray   14:39
Yes, there are. 

Mike Santa Cruz   14:40
OK.
But this makes it a little bit more accessible as it were. 

John Gray   14:45
Correct. 

Mike Santa Cruz   14:46
And it looks like you had a lot of lights up on there on the.
On that note, those lights that we have up there, those don’t come with the bull bar, of course, but how many mounting points does the does this application have for lighting? 

John Gray   15:06
6 mounts so we have two on top of each of the cross tubes, and then two on the bottom.
So you could put a different combination of lights, however.
We liked this set due to where the sensors and.
Cameras are on the vehicle. It allowed us better access for visibility on the cameras and everything.
So we actually preferred the the 4/6 inch rigid lights and then the light bar. 

Mike Santa Cruz   15:43
OK, so you want to get into the techs and specs on that like material wise tube sizes, any of that? 

John Gray   15:53
All of the the uprights are all three sixteenths steel.
We have some quarter inch steel at the bottom with a backing plate to make sure that we are compliant with the tow hooks.
So we’ve really beefed it up around the tow hooks to make sure we have the strength to pull this out of a ditch or mud or whatever it is. 

Mike Santa Cruz   16:19
Does it does this one also feature a winch mount location OK? 

John Gray   16:23
No, we have not incorporated a lynch mount into it. 

Mike Santa Cruz   16:27
OK.
And what about using any factory?
Components like does this integrate well?
With what?
What comes on the LC-250 like I don’t.
I didn’t really see is there.
Is there a belly pan on from the factory or? 

John Gray   16:43
Yes, they have some pretty decent.
Skid plates on the vehicle from the factory.
So we didn’t.
We worked around all the factory skid plates. 

Mike Santa Cruz   16:56
OK.
So James, did you work on this project or did you work more on the the bumpers for the Subaru platforms? 

James Provencher   17:03
I’ll work more on the bumper for the Subaru, but I did work with this project as well. 

Mike Santa Cruz   17:09
Was was there anything that you learned from the Subaru bumpers that you you kind of brought to to the design concept of?
Of this particular application on the line cruiser. 

James Provencher   17:20
I don’t know if it’s anything that we really learn. I think it’s something that’s kind of the core ethos of AFE is we do bolt on products that you don’t have to modify your vehicle to install. And that was a that’s A was a core thing with the.
Toyota and a core.
Value for the Subaru. 

Mike Santa Cruz   17:43
So on this application there’s no modifications that this bolts right up to the stock mounting points or or stock location.
So you don’t.
You just kind of no cutting, no drilling. 

James Provencher   17:54
No cutting.
No drilling.
Real simple real simple installation. 

Mike Santa Cruz   17:59
Very clean piece.
Got a lot of compliments at the seam, Michelle, a lot of people came by and thought that was a factory option.
They couple people actually asked.
They had their land cruisers on order from their local dealerships and thought this came as an option like atrd package or something and said no, this is all AFE so.
That’s a really nice piece, and that’s a really great compliment when people think that it looks like it belongs with the vehicle and that’s something we’ve always like. You mentioned our ethos is not just with exterior.
Exterior products, but intakes exhaust all the products that you guys touch and get involved with. You definitely make sure that it’s the fit and finishes is right there a spot on. So that’s awesome.
So kind of jumping back over to some of the bumpers for the other vehicle.
So some some of those bumpers do offer one mount. What size or type of winch actually works on on those applications?
Is there a specific size or dimension? 

James Provencher   19:01
When we did the winch mounts for the Subarus, we decided to go with a 5500 LB winch so that.
Bolt pattern is very common for.
Worn 5500.
The Badland apex 5500. They all have a three inch by 6.6 inch mounting pattern.
So you can basically mount any aftermarket winch that’s of that caring that winch capacity. 

Mike Santa Cruz   19:34
OK.
That’s good to know ’cause. I have had that question asked before.
What? What size lensen?
I’m not a lens person.
I didn’t know, so that’s really good to have that in the text. 

John Gray   19:46
You know, the winch manufacturers actually have have the bolt pattern on their sites and stuff, so we’re actually going to add.
An image on our information to indicate what the bolt pattern is, so that’ll help with future questions. 

Mike Santa Cruz   20:05
No great idea. Thank you.
That will that will definitely help a lot.
So do the bumpers come with any other accessories?
I I know we kind of covered it a little bit, but maybe we can go a little bit more deeper on that.
So I know some come with winch mounts, some do not.
Some come with a skid plate.
Either one of you want to want to fill that question. 

John Gray   20:28
So what we did is when we added a winch we include.
A front skid plate. We wanted to get a little more strength out of the part. Make sure that we tied everything in really well. Make sure that winch is going to hold.
So we actually included.
The front skid plate.
The engine skid plates are sold separately and the front skid plate is sold separately for.
The bumpers that do not have a lunge so you don’t have to have the skid plates.
But you can buy them as an option on the one without the lens. 

Mike Santa Cruz   21:13
Is there any other accessories that come with it?
I I think I noticed on one of them there’s like some light tabs or what mounting points is that? 

John Gray   21:20
We have light tabs. 

Mike Santa Cruz   21:20
Included. 

John Gray   21:22
We have 4 light tabs for the.
Winch bumper with a winch mount and we have six light tabs for the bumpers without a lidch.
So, but that that’s about it. And the shackle mounts. So you can put your own shackles and move the recovery points out farther forward. 

Mike Santa Cruz   21:46
So the light tabs or the adjustable light tabs are those.
Is that an accessory?
You can buy separately or is that included or? 

John Gray   21:54
Those are not adjustable light tabs.
The light tabs are welded onto the tubes.
We do sell a relocation.
Light tab that will move the light about 2 1/2 inches.
Anywhere from the welded on tab, we found that helped in some cases to move the lights forward. Some lights are deeper than other lights, so it just allowed us a little more flexibility in moving lights around and getting them where we wanted them to.
It’s a fairly simple item. I don’t remember the part number, but it is part of the Taraguard line. 

Mike Santa Cruz   22:42
Yeah, I I kinda see this as a as an ongoing thing of of more part numbers that come that would complement a lot of these products that you guys are are cranking out here on that bumper. Is that something you can actually tow from I I know you.
Have the the mounting points or excuse me the the tow hook or the shackle mounting points?
Can you actually recover the vehicle by just hooking up to the bumper or by the?
By the tow hook and and pulling it out. 

John Gray   23:12
Oh, I would have no problem with throwing.
A.
A soft shackle mount around the tube.
It’s it’s eighth inch wall.
Inch and 1/2 tubing.
So it will.
It would handle being pulled out that that way. James, what do you think? 

James Provencher   23:32
Oh, I mean, that was the whole intent when we designed this was to get away from the factory screw in recovery point where you know that’s a typically a a welded in nutsert that I’ve seen them fail.
And when they fail, they damage your vehicle where this is designed to take the load down to the engine cradle.
And so when you’re actually doing recovery work, you’re you’re pulling from the lower parts of the suspension assembly?
Kinda helps get the vehicle out of some stuck situations and if you’re in a area that you’ve kinda, you know, a stream or some muddy area you’re not having to dig underneath the car to go get a soft shackle to control arm.
You’re right there.
You can access your recovery point right in the front of the vehicle. 

Mike Santa Cruz   24:26
Yeah, I noticed that and looking at the picture, that bar just extends underneath the front bumper into the into the front section of the chassis. As you guys mentioned, it looks like it’s pretty 2, pretty thick wall, tubular steel, great mounting points, great recovery points.
That skip plate that is shown in this picture that’s sold separately or is that one actually come with this actual model? 

James Provencher   24:55
That one is included with the bumpers with the winch.
So those.
That is available as an accessory if you elect to buy the bumper without the winch mount, but the bumpers with the winch mount will include that skid plate that’s shown. 

Mike Santa Cruz   25:10
Nice.
Yeah, that looks pretty.
How thick is that skid plate? 

James Provencher   25:15
It’s quarter inch aluminum. So it’s, you know, really quite durable and it you know the intent is to do 2 things as one’s to make the whole assembly a little more rigid.
So if you are winching off of it, that’s providing more.
Pathways for the winch load to get transferred into the chassis and not damage the vehicle. It’s also there to protect the front cross member for any you know debris.
You know, if you’re heading out a rock trail.
Usually this even off road the the center is always the high point. You know all the the wheel, the wheels make a you know 2 wheel lines. You got a center point that’s high and the skid plate will prevent any like rocks and debris getting stuck up and.
Hammering your your front crossmember. 

Mike Santa Cruz   26:07
So, James, we really haven’t talked about what you do.
Non office hours, but you’re off roader yourself. 

James Provencher   26:16
Oh Oh yeah. 

Mike Santa Cruz   26:17
Is this? Is this something that you can definitely use on your adventures?
I mean, have you been stuck or been in that situation where you could really have used the the skid plate or or a bumper like this on your vehicle? 

James Provencher   26:31
Been in many recovery situation over the years, yes. 

Mike Santa Cruz   26:36
I think that’s probably what what all prompted you guys to come up with the tow hooks for the tundra as soon as you found out there wasn’t those, those didn’t come from the factory.
So the skip plates or something? Is that something you guys are going to expand on like you have more applications for the skid plates? 

James Provencher   26:52
We are offering an engine skid plate for the later model, current or current Gen. Subaru Outback so that that’s it there. So that extends a skid plate to cover up the the engine area and then we’re actually working on side Shields that are, you know via 2W.
So to speak, that I’ll cover even more of that area, but this is. 

Mike Santa Cruz   27:19
Wow. 

James Provencher   27:21
Current we’re working on.
Other apps that’ll do in a engine skid as well. 

Mike Santa Cruz   27:26
Can somebody buy just the skid plates without installing the bumper, or is that kind of go hand in hand? 

James Provencher   27:34
This one is. This goes hand in hand with our bumper.
It’s part of our. It’s part of an expansion of the pumper project, the front mounting points are tied to our bumper mounts. 

Mike Santa Cruz   27:49
OK. 

John Gray   27:50
Yeah. Because we tied the bumpers to the cross member and the suspension. 

James Provencher   27:50
Our. 

John Gray   27:58
We used up a lot of the area that.
Typically would be used to mount skin plates so other skid plates.
Unfortunately, other manufacturers skid plates won’t work with our bumper.
So that’s why we went ahead and started offering the the skid plate. 

Mike Santa Cruz   28:15
OK. 

John Gray   28:19
Ates and, like James says, we’re slowly building on that. You know, as we get these out there and people say, hey, we want this we you know we need a little more protection.
We don’t want debris up in our engine compartment, so we’re working on that.
We’re just building upon it as we as we go. 

Mike Santa Cruz   28:39
That’s definitely a nice a nice. 

John Gray   28:39
So because because I don’t mind stuff up in my engine compartment, but we live in a different area.
It’s more dust and dirt, and it’s not mud and other debris that gets up in there that we don’t necessarily see all of that good. 

Mike Santa Cruz   28:46
Yeah.
Well, I just see it as a great deterrent or protection against anything. Like if you go over a high sided area or like a a rocker or any kind of obstacle in the middle, it just keeps anything from damaging anything underneath.
Maybe a catalytic converter exhaust or you know a line or something like that.
So it looks like it serves quite a few purposes.
Are these bumpers going back to the bumpers themselves?
And you know the skid plate.
I guess are they pretty easy to install? 

John Gray   29:29
Yes, they. 

James Provencher   29:29
Yeah, I mean, they’re completely bolt on, really straightforward to install.
Few of them require a nut search to be installed, and that’s probably the most difficult.
Part of the process if you’ve never dealt with Nutserts before, but we provide a a nutsert tool and.
It’s it’s a really straightforward process. 

Mike Santa Cruz   29:53
And what for a shop that might be watching this? How long would they quote a customer for an install time you guys have installed plenty of these I’m sure. 

James Provencher   30:04
Yeah, you know we can install one of these in the shop.
And I mean, John and I probably do one in a couple hours if we if we you know if we.
Probably take us just about as long to unbox the darn thing as it does to to install it on a vehicle.
Honestly, they’re really straightforward to do there.
You know, I think that, you know, 2, two or three billable shop hours is gonna cover most of these installs. 

Mike Santa Cruz   30:34
Oh, that’s pretty good.
That’s great for the shop.
I mean, obviously they make some profit off the product, but also on the labour and in a happy customer for sure.
So how much weight do these bumpers add to the vehicle? 

James Provencher   30:51
Have to.
That was one I wasn’t prepared for.
But let me see here. 

John Gray   31:01
I think there are about 45 lbs.
But once you start adding lights and a winch.
And the skid plate, I think that skid plate is.
It was about 10.
The smaller one is about 7 lbs. The bigger one’s about 10 lbs. So.
Not so bad. 

Mike Santa Cruz   31:22
So the skip plates are are fairly light, but the bumpers themselves are roughly 40 lbs. John. 

John Gray   31:27
I believe it’s about 40 lbs, yeah. 

Mike Santa Cruz   31:30
OK. And how well do these parts?
Play with with the factory accessories like with somebody that has a stock Subaru, whatever Gen. with we have the application.
Does that bumper work with like the factory lights and and cameras? 

John Gray   31:52
Yes, there’s been, no the I think the wilderness, the newer generation has a camera up front.
We we have them installed on our wilderness and you can see the product in the camera, but you still have a good view of the terrain in front of you through the camera. 

Mike Santa Cruz   32:14
Sure.
So these these bumpers bolt on.
No mods adds. Add a little extra weight, but the return is you got a great recovery point and an awesome looking light bar. 

John Gray   32:23
Yeah. 

Mike Santa Cruz   32:28
And they do work with factory lights as well as the factory accessories.
What about the sensors on the newer vehicles?
I know more of these vehicles are coming out with a lot more electronics on them and sometimes it can be kind of a headache and they’re kind of annoying, to be honest.
That’s my personal opinion, but I know some people kind of rely. 

John Gray   32:45
Up. 

Mike Santa Cruz   32:46
Heavily on on those sensors.
Anything to do with those sensors in the bumpers? 

John Gray   32:53
We’ve had no issues or anything with the bumpers, the full bars, we you can have some. 

Mike Santa Cruz   32:53
OK. 

John Gray   33:00
Issues that may require some adjustable adjustments, but nothing that has been a major issue. 

Mike Santa Cruz   33:10
And I bring that up because.
We have talked in detail since SEMA on the LC-250. It’s loaded with with Nanny. Here, our sensors and cameras and I know you guys have been working diligently on on getting all of those little tiny issues worked out. But overall, anybody who’s gonna be putting on.
An aftermarket bumper bull bar.
Tire Mount, tire rack on the rear.
Any of those things, as soon as it starts to.
Impede any of the sensors at the very least, or most I should say, it’s gonna just throw.
What a little dash message that there’s something in the way and it’s not really there. 

John Gray   34:00
Correct it could, yes. 

Mike Santa Cruz   34:02
Yeah. So I don’t. 

John Gray   34:03
Which there which you can turn off. 

Mike Santa Cruz   34:05
Thank you.
That’s that’s something that that I personally would do myself.
I don’t have a lot of those and whistles and buzzers going off in my car just because I’m thinking about changing, doing a lane change or if I’m losing a little bit of traction, but that’s another, that’s another webinar.
So great news, these bumpers bolt up.
Nice install times. Nice applications.
You guys have thought these these parts through?
What’s the warranty on these bumpers?
Do they come with one or people are gonna tear them up? 

John Gray   34:42
As with all of our products, it’s a two year warranty on the product.
For. 

Mike Santa Cruz   34:47
OK. Do they come in? 

John Gray   34:48
For any defects. 

Mike Santa Cruz   34:50
I I actually have one question that somebody sent is did they come in any of the colors in black?
This is like, you know, Henry Ford question, but. 

John Gray   34:58
No, but I have had other people.
You know, some people wanna do a lot.
Do something different and I’ve had three or four people let me know they were.
One to have them coded different. 

Mike Santa Cruz   35:14
OK. And hey. 

John Gray   35:15
So right off the bat, and they were pretty happy about it. 

Mike Santa Cruz   35:18
And it’s not.
It’s not that hard to do what kind of powder coat do these come with from from AFE. 

John Gray   35:25
It’s it’s a fine texture black, but it just got a little bit of a texture so.
Covers up a lot of Marks and stuff. 

Mike Santa Cruz   35:36
If you’re really using it, it’s it sounds like it’s pretty.
It’s pretty durable too and still look good, even though it’s it’s out front.
Protecting the front bumper.
So kind of jumping back to like what jobbers are all more interested about other than shop time and profit margins does this.
Bumpers or these bumpers. They shipped in one package in one box and are they oversized package like, is there any extra freight or fees or costs that are affiliated with?
Was shipping these bumpers out. 

John Gray   36:11
No, we’ve we’ve designed them to be.
Shipped in a non oversized.
Box based on current FedEx and UPS standards, so that doesn’t mean that going forward in the future we might design something that’s bigger, but we did a lot of redesigns on this to keep them from being oversized. 

Mike Santa Cruz   36:25
Wow.
That’s great that that is a big selling point right there.
‘Cause, I noticed you know shopping online.
You’re looking at some of these exterior products, roof racks and tire tire mounts.
Spare tire mounts, bumpers.
They it’s in glaring red block letters subject to oversize, you know, shipping fees. And I get it.
It’s it’s a lot of people are like.
Cost have gone up inflation.
Everything else in in for a lot of the carriers, they’re they’re kind of going after.
Any any dot coms or any retailers or sellers or drop shippers of like hey, we’re going to slap on an extra $200.00 three $100 service fee. But you guys thought ahead of the curve of trying to design and keeping it within the confines of of.
An oversized package, but that target always moves, so good job for for taking care of that. I’m sure a lot of a lot of the distributors and dealers can appreciate that too.
Thank you. 

John Gray   37:39
Hey, hey, Mike. We had. 

Mike Santa Cruz   37:40
Yeah. 

John Gray   37:41
We had a question on.
Our steps, the mounting and so I just wanted to answer those real quick. 

Mike Santa Cruz   37:47
Yeah.
Sure, go for it. 

John Gray   37:52
So on the rock sliders and the steps on the Subaru, we put nut certs in all the factory holes that hold the plastic cladding on. We put a nut cert in them and bolt right to those that mounts plush to the rocker panel.
To get protect to get the locker panel protection and wraps around the pinch rail on both the slider and the steps. So.
Basically, they’re to the rocker panel.
And as far as the.
The LC the Land Cruiser we went to the frame on that.
Oh man, on the Bronco, we ended up going to the factory now.
On the inside of the rocker panel that correct James. 

James Provencher   38:48
That’s correct.
Yeah, the the.
4 Bronco had a really robust mounting solution for the slider that we could actually go right to the body where the Land Cruiser. I decided to go to the frame because.
The frame mount seemed to be much more rugged than the body mounts on that vehicle. 

Mike Santa Cruz   39:17
Wow, those are some real. 

John Gray   39:17
I hope that answered that question. 

Mike Santa Cruz   39:19
Yeah, that those are some really nice sliders on the Bronco.
And they install similar to the Subaru James. 

James Provencher   39:28
Is there?
Yeah, they’re completely bolt on.
They have 3 brackets aside that bolt to the existing factory locations and then.
The slider mounts to that and also get sandwiched in the pinch seam of the vehicle, so it actually ties right to the the body.
Pretty, very rigidly. 

Mike Santa Cruz   39:51
Nice. Yeah, those are some good questions.
Thanks for submitting those guys.
Real quick too.
Got another one that just popped up.
Anything for the new Tacoma? 

John Gray   40:03
It’s in the works. 

Mike Santa Cruz   40:04
It’s in the works OK.
Can you elaborate?
Like is it going to be a a slider? 

John Gray   40:09
Well, looking at the, it’ll be a a bull bar, very similar to what’s on Land Cruiser.
They’ll have a similar we’re trying to carry that theme. 

Mike Santa Cruz   40:19
OK. 

John Gray   40:22
It’ll be the four plates, basically two side plates and the light bars and. 

Mike Santa Cruz   40:23
Yes. 

John Gray   40:31
A shackle mount so it’ll look very similar.
That’ll that we’re doing for the Tacoma.
And the forerunner? We’re in process on the design as well as the rock sliders, which would be the same.
They would look almost identical to what you’ve seen on the Bronco and the Land Cruiser.
We’re hearing those themes across.
On all of the products. 

Mike Santa Cruz   40:58
Very cool.
So bumper for the Tacoma rock slider for the Tacoma? 

James Provencher   41:04
Yeah. 

Mike Santa Cruz   41:07
And James, what other vehicles are you guys looking at?
I know you mentioned a few of them already.
Tacoma obviously in forerunner.
Any other vehicles? 

James Provencher   41:19
But we’re looking to expand our Subaru line up.
So we’ll be going to the current Gen. of the.
Cross track at some point and hitting that and then expanding to the current Gen. Outbacks in the non wilderness model.
And then we have.
Some products that we’re working on for.
1500 or series trucks.
So F-150 and.
We’re looking to get into, you know, Dodge Ram and other full size pickup trucks for some lighting accessories. 

Mike Santa Cruz   42:05
Wow, you gotta.
You guys gotta have your your plate full.
I I heard John come up with a couple things on his short list of things to do and you got a full bucket so you guys can be busy in 2025 and beyond.
Tyranny was actually showing up. Some of that install video on one of the questions on on how the the sliders and the the rock sliders and the steps were mounted onto the Subaru. You guys have to check out that video.
It’s very, very informative and very in depth.
The guys did a lot of work.
Effort in making it as simple as possible to install.
There’s a few people if you go out into YouTube land and there’s a couple of influencers out there that have picked up our product and definitely gave us two thumbs up on on the design process and the installation process.
So John James, great job again as always on these products, we looks like we’re out of time and wrap it up.
Oh, I did have one more question that pop up.
Rudy from real truck was asking if you guys were gonna work on any more.
Exterior products for.
Like quarter ton trucks. 

John Gray   43:12
Well.
If you’re talking about the Tacoma, we already said we’re doing that.
The Colorado.
Ranger. Yes, we will be, but they may be a little later this year. 

Mike Santa Cruz   43:31
So not as not as in demand, but they’re definitely. 

John Gray   43:32
Same same.
Well, there’s only so much time. 

Mike Santa Cruz   43:36
I got it. I got so the. 

John Gray   43:37
So I would love to hit all of them right away, but.
We will get to them. 

Mike Santa Cruz   43:43
So if you’re, if you’re, if you’re in the market or if you’re a shop or in the trade.
Keep hitting us up.
Let us know what you think our priorities out there, ’cause. Everybody’s gonna be different, but we’re gonna go on the the path of least resistance.
The guys are working 24/7 developing these great products.
So we’d love to hear some feedback on where you think we should be going, but they have their list.
It can always be skewed a little bit, but yeah, it looks like we’re out of time.
But I wanna thank everybody for joining us.
John James, thank you for taking the questions and the time out today. And again your busy schedule.
Busy guys hope everyone out there learned a little bit about Terra guard product, particularly the bumpers.
Keep those questions coming.
We really do appreciate all the feedback to send us an e-mail or DM US or leave us a comment here on this, on this webinar, and as Terry mentioned at the beginning of this session.
Please take a look at your emails.
You’ll have links to future webinars, and we definitely appreciate when you forward those to your staff and other people that might be interested in in checking us out and learning more about AFE products.
Another quick two things.
Any other information you’re looking for on any of the products, what we just talked about today go to afepower.com and this year we are going back to overland W we will be out at Flagstaff, AZ.
Same location as we were last year.
We’re able to debut a lot of our products or Terra guard products at this show. As we talked about today, we will be attending the show May 16th and 18th at the Fort Tuthill County Park in Flagstaff, AZ.
The space is P.
As in Paul 40.
So if you’re going out there this year, check us out.
You learn a lot more about our products and ask any questions you have tyranny. 

Taraneh Niakan   45:42
Yeah. Thank you everyone for joining us today.
I’ll send up a follow up e-mail with this webinar that you could share with your team members if they were not able to make it. Also just reminding we do have a blog site that we update with new products daily and different platform spotlights. If you want to.
Learn more about the three builds that we had on SEMA.
So I linked that into the chat.
Also, if you want to see any past webinars that’s also on.
The blog and also on the dealer site, so I’ll put that in the link in the chat now.
So yeah, keep the questions going. And if you have any requests for webinars, anything that you feel that your customers are interested in, you know, if you have your finger on the pulse of what your customers are wanting, what they’re asking especially about you know product demand, applic.
And all that stuff.
Please shoot us an e-mail you could reply to any of the webinar emails and.
Your feedback is greatly appreciated. So thank you everyone and have a good day. 

Mike Santa Cruz   46:48
Alright, thank you.
Have a good one. 

John Gray   46:50
Thank you. 

James Provencher   46:50
Thanks. 

Mike Santa Cruz   46:51
Bye bye. 

Taraneh Niakan stopped transcription