The engineer’s curse is strong with this one. Brennan Metcalf brings all kinds of goodies to the off-road world. Listen in to a fascinating discussion of mods and parts. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
5:40 – One of the last summers I was up there, my stepdad came and sat next to me right when he got done haying, and I almost went to the hospital
17:03– I wasn’t really into college that much – ended up doing an on-again, off-again; started into wildland firefighting
27:32 – I’m sitting there with the doc and he goes, “let me see your good knee” I give him the uninjured knee and he’s like, no, no, let me see your good knee.
31:41 – Now, I just get to do, at least right now, I just get to do what I want and that’s building stuff
41:05– “let’s talk about these 300 projects, what is it that ticks in your brain to come up with stuff?” I call it the engineer’s curse
55:06 –I branched off into doing some off-road recovery gear
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.840] – Big Rich Klein
My guest this week on Conversations with Big Rich has made a couple of pivots in life, but like many of us in off-road, found a way to make a hobby into a lifestyle. Brennan Metcalf turned his passion of off-road into a business. Hello, Brennan Metcalf. So good to have you on the podcast. I’m looking forward this one because you’re one of those engineer, skunkworks type guy, not maybe real skunkworks, I mean. But you come up with some really cool products and some really cool ideas, and I can’t wait to talk about how that as this works for you. Thank you for coming on.
[00:02:17.730] – Brennan Metcalf
Thanks for having me, Rich. I’m happy to be here and happy to talk about you with all the neat stuff that I build, I guess.
[00:02:25.380] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, looking forward to this. So the first question, the easiest question to answer for most people, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:34.000] – Brennan Metcalf
Oh, that’s a tough one, actually. I don’t like to admit this, but I was actually born in California.
[00:02:38.320] – Big Rich Klein
So was I. It’s okay.
[00:02:41.160] – Brennan Metcalf
So, yeah, I lived there till I was about eight or nine I’m born in San Jose, California. Spent a couple of years there, and then we moved to… Just before we left California, we spent a year or two in Palm Desert, Indio area, Southern California.
[00:03:00.430] – Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:03:02.790] – Brennan Metcalf
Yeah. Of all places I ended up moving to when I was nine, we moved to this little tiny town in Idaho called Salmon.
[00:03:13.100] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, I know Salmon.
[00:03:14.530] – Brennan Metcalf
About three people do. No, just kidding. But yeah, so here I am, a nine, 10-year-old or whatever, Californian little, used to skate a little when I was a kid and ride four-wheelers and dirt bikes out in the desert and that stuff. My mom up and retires, gets out of California. She was into real estate and wanted out, was done. She wanted a simple country life, and so she moved us to Salmon, Idaho.
[00:03:51.690] – Big Rich Klein
Wow. The simple country life, did that include like chickens and goats?
[00:03:57.160] – Brennan Metcalf
Not too much when I was little. That did evolve. It was just me and my mom. She bought a little house, actually a big little house, if that makes any sense, and still wanted to do some remodeling and stuff like that. I think that took precedent. Then when I was in high school and starting to move on to college and stuff, she started expanding the little place that she bought. There There was another 9 or 10 acres that went down to the creek behind the house. Then when she bought it, that was separated. She waited for years and years until it came up for sale again and then bought that. Then when she remarried and some other stuff, then it’s thousand horses and dogs and cats and everything. My parents still actually live there, still live in that house. Yeah, Now they have all the animals, and now they have a great excuse never to leave and come visit me.
[00:05:03.890] – Big Rich Klein
That means you always have to make the visit to them?
[00:05:09.540] – Brennan Metcalf
Yeah. Usually, I try to get up there and see them at least once a year or so. I have terrible hay fever to something around there, so I don’t get to go up there much in the summers anymore. I’m almost banned from going up there. It’s a pretty bad hay fever It’s not just something I’m allergic to up there.
[00:05:32.410] – Big Rich Klein
Wow. It’s probably that ragweed stuff that’s that high desert-like area in the rocks and everything.
[00:05:40.270] – Brennan Metcalf
Yeah. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. It’s just something to do with the hay alfalfa stuff up there. My stepdad used to cut a lot of hay, including on their own property and then for neighbors and stuff like that. One of the last summers I was up there, he came and sat next to me at the or in the kitchen right when he got done haying, and I almost went to the hospital. READ MORE
