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TrailRecon spotted last Saturday outside of Silverton, CO

Aloha Offroad

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I like the demeanor and tone of this channel too. It is VERY well done. But after a while, it’s seemed to me to just boil down to a guy eating a grilled Cheese in some woods day after day after day after.....

there didn’t seem to be much (ad)venture. There wasn’t a lot of history about locations. There wasn’t a lot of visits into town. This wasn’t about travel per se. this wasn’t about history per se. this wasn’t about....... this just seemed to be about a guy in the woods alone traveling from one rural campsite to another To eat another chilled cheese.
For me, I was amazed at the distance he would cover from week to week. One week he is Washington State, the next Arizona, then Texas. Pretty cool to see different parts of America. Please don't overlook that he eats a hell of a lot of Cheez Its!

Another channel that was very similar in some ways (living in a Jeep, traveling from campsite to campsite) although their demeanors could not have been more different was IamJake. Similar to Chris, except instead of traveling to campsites and eating grilled cheese, Jake was traveling to campsites trying to fix his YJ mocked up to look like a CJ and eating banana pancakes.

That said, I am really craving some new Jeep content. Any recommendations are appreciated!
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Revolution_322

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Whatever happened to that american jeeper guy who had that accident in Moab? He used to be a member on this forum.
 

Dave928

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I’m liking Overland Bound. not much (hardly any) Jeep content, but seems to be good camping/overlanding advice.
 

rfm8os

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I like Brad and I like his channel, though I can see some of the criticism here as being valid. I also agree the channel was maybe a bit better earlier on. He is a gear hound for sure and likes to constantly swap things out. But at the same time he does thorough reviews so there are some things to learn, if you are interested. He does get out on the trail quite often and uses the stuff so I am a little hesitant to agree with the "poser" tag for him.

I like venture4wd quite a bit... Chris' channel is a lot more, to me, than camping and eating grilled cheese. He's living a lifestyle a lot of people talk about but seldom do - getting out and just traveling and seeing the country without too much of a plan. He quitely features a ton of beautiful scenery and parts of North America that I would love to visit. If you support him on Patreon you can get access to all his waypoints, travel notes and tips on camp sites. When covid is over I intend to do a longer time period road trip and hit some of the spots he's featured though I am not going to be able to scratch the surface.

I also used to like LiteBright, but now find they have jumped the shark with all the over the top product stuff and don't seem to wheel as much. I find I seldom watch their videos now.
 

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Slopeside

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You either die a hero or live long enough to be a villain on YouTube.

Yeah Brad is a gear head and likes playing with toys but seems to be a genuinely good dude and likes moderate off roading. His is a channel I still watch as it’s relevant to what I do with my Jeep minus the upgrades and gadgets. Just ran Imogene and Ophir pass on my honeymoon two days ago in my stock Sport S on rubi take offs.

I think we can all agree the Yota Tubers are the absolute worst though.
Jeep Wrangler JL TrailRecon spotted last Saturday outside of Silverton, CO D0675DD3-4C9C-4F16-AFDD-F50B435B8E1F
 

nostatic

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He seems like a genuinely enthusiastic guy and iirc he was a Navy corpsman so that is a win in my book (my dad was the same in WW2).

Youtube is a rough place. People start making videos for fun, then they find a niche and get popular, then there can be a lot of pressure to raise the bar - be it production value, subscriber numbers, or likes. It gets toxic pretty quickly.

He also seems to err on the side of caution, which is a bit of a refreshing counterpoint to the “hold my beer and watch this...” crowd. If I want to watch jackasses, I’ll tune into tv news around election time.
 

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There is another channel that I just started watching ..... “the road chose me”. The guy does international over landing. alaska to Argentina. All around Africa. I find the channel interesting. Will I ever “overland”? Probably not. Will I ever “international overland”? About as likely as me winning the Tour de France. But, I like hearing the various perspectives .....

the road chose me guy did a video on tire sizes for international overlanding that I watched recently. I found the content very interesting.
Love that channel. Very practical advice.
 

DizzyIzzy

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I like venture4wd and his quiet adventures.

I also like Epic Family Road Trip. I love the fact that they took all the kids, sold their properties and decided to go on adventures.

The Road Chose Me, Overland Bound, and Last Line Of Defense are the other three I watch from time to time.
 

GerJL

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A lot of these channels start off good but then go down hill. They start with 1 or 2 commercials and before you know it there are 6 commercials per video, their own mini commercials hawking a product or company, directing you to their site to purchase merchandise and the best of all begging you to support them on Patreon with a monthly stream of money. It is like reality TV merged with panhandling and is available for watching on Youtube.

That said, TrailRecon is one of the less obnoxious content creators and seems pretty humble. I like Dirt LifeStyle also. Even though he has a similar set up, most of his content is educational as well as entertaining.
 

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I also used to like LiteBright, but now find they have jumped the shark with all the over the top product stuff and don't seem to wheel as much. I find I seldom watch their videos now.
Same here as with TR. started awesome and now just commercials of their free stuff. Hardly much wheeling any longer. I lost all faith in the: when they said they would give honest reviews and not sell out until they did just that when their engine blew. Other than her being a smoke show there is nothing good any longer on there channel.
 

melman8r

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I watch TR, Lite Brite, [Banned Site], Dirt Lifestyle and Bleepin Jeep. Here's Kevin and myself at Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion...
Jeep Wrangler JL TrailRecon spotted last Saturday outside of Silverton, CO 20200820_120958
 

Punk'n Willy

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I like Venture4wd because I don't feel like Chris is always showing off his latest gadgets, though is ursaminor is pretty amazing. Although he's kind of quiet, he just seems like he is out there doing his own thing. He's been traveling for three years now and at times he has exposed himself as vulnerable and lonely, and I like that. Also, his camera work and editing is quite good and I appreciate the time and effort he puts into it.
Chris's channel is like ASMR, his shots are amazing and now he has the new girl in his life he's eating better lol.
 

aldo98229

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A lot of these channels start off good but then go down hill. They start with 1 or 2 commercials and before you know it there are 6 commercials per video, their own mini commercials hawking a product or company, directing you to their site to purchase merchandise and the best of all begging you to support them on Patreon with a monthly stream of money. It is like reality TV merged with panhandling and is available for watching on Youtube.

That said, TrailRecon is one of the less obnoxious content creators and seems pretty humble. I like Dirt LifeStyle also. Even though he has a similar set up, most of his content is educational as well as entertaining.
I guess my main issue with TrailRecon is that Brad has gotten to talk too much and show too little.

On his latest videos, I catch myself losing interest after hearing him blabber away non-stop for 10+ minutes.

I might as well go back to my Zoom meeting and listen to the CEO do the exact same... :LOL:
 

Fonzilla85

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Never been a YouTube fan boy, nor would I spend my time watching other dudes drive around in their Jeep. After checking this thread out, I looked into this channel, I do like the fact that the Trailrecon dude is a veteran, but the commercials, product placement and on going blabbing really gets old fast.
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