Dixie Four-Wheel Drive Founder, Milt Thompson shares his story this week. It’s not just about four-wheel drive, it’s about raising a family, hiring well and being around at the beginning of the competitive scene. Now with two shops in Utah, St. George and Moab, Milt and family have built a terrific business. If you are in either area, and need some work done, these are the people you go to. Capable, trustworthy and always working with you in mind. https://dixie4wheeldrive.com/
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2:21 – Growing up in St George, when it was still small
3:52 –Figure 8’s in the field gave us away
9:42 – the things we sell for love
12:25 – A pioneering family
22:01 – A bad habit working on my own stuff
23:25 – Why I was packing at 2 a.m.
27:13 – It was time to get a Jeep
37:31 – Can you do that to my Jeep?
44:15 – My mail-order bride
49:23 – Hiring solid crews
1:07:41 – Broken bones and ARCA
1:10:41 – Why didn’t you tell me that before?
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:21.150] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have Milt Thompson from Dixie Four-Wheel Drive in St George, Utah, and Moab, Utah.
[00:01:30.510]
So Milton, I have known each other since the mid 90s when I was living in Cedar City. And of course, Milt was down in St George with Dixie and part of the Four-Wheel Drive Club down there. He’s opened a lot of trails, if not most of the trails in sand hollow. And we’ll discuss Life Off Road and Four-Wheel Drive and Milt’s history.
[00:01:55.190]
OK, Milt, go ahead and let’s get started. Where did you grow up?
[00:01:59.780] – Milt Thompson
I grew up in St. George, born and raised, back when St. George was around 5000 people, as I recall it, kind of about the size Moab.
[00:02:12.410]
Now, that little out of the way town interstate didn’t go through there then it.
[00:02:21.470]
It was hotter than hell. There still is depending on time of year, but yeah, growing up as a kid there, very small town, knew most everybody. Lots of places to chase and play down there as a kid growing up.
[00:02:37.380] – Big Rich Klein
So how did you how did your life off road get started?
[00:02:43.000] – Milt Thompson
I don’t know if there’s one thing I can identify as starting it, I remember as a very young kid, my dad had an old Jeep, old flat fender with a three speed column shift.
[00:02:56.350]
And I remember going for a ride with my older brother. Years, years, years ago, and down where Dixie State University is now, we got down that way, unfortunately, we had to walk home. The old Jeep wasn’t in great shape and hadn’t been kept up and quit. And we had to walk back and they had to go get something to tow it back. But that was my earliest recollection of a Jeep ride.
[00:03:23.290]
A few years later, Dad had a quite a collection of odds and ends up in the backyard at our house where we lived. I remember toting the wagon when I got big enough to lift his toolbox in the wagon and pull it up the hill to the backyard and started working on things, I’d take them apart, see how they worked. My younger brother was prone to breaking the lights and the windows out of things, but I took to liking to work on them.
[00:03:52.700]
I think the first rig that. Well, we had a 53 Ford pickup that I remember we got running as kids, about 10 years old somewhere in there, and so whenever the folks would leave, we would go start it and drive it around up in the backyard and through the neighborhood on the dirt roads.
[00:04:11.800] – Big Rich Klein
So it sounds to me like they didn’t know that you had it running.
[00:04:15.760] – Milt Thompson
Well, we didn’t think they knew we had it running, but the big figure eights out in the open field probably gave them a pretty good clue that something was up. READ MORE
