Community-minded, Tyler Laursen is on episode 170 of Conversations with Big Rich. Tyler brings a rich history of giving back to the industry, from improving products at MorrFlate to educating wheelers on best practices on the SnailTrail 4×4 podcast; listen in to see what all he’s up to. It’s a great listen, be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
10:45 – You’ve got everything within two hours of Sac; the beach, hunting, the mountains, wheeling, whitewater rafting
15:13 – if you’re passionate about something, I found the best way to make sure it succeeds is just do it and take it over
19:57 – Right place, right time with a good product that solved a major pain point
33:03 – I hate patents; I think they are something companies hide behind to hide bad customer service
38:24 – I’m all for DIY; there’s a lot of really rad stuff in the industry that came from the garage
44:31 – it’s people who love going out wheeling and love helping people
57:53 – Toyota first Gens are like legos, you just put them together and bolt them together
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.130] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we will be speaking with Tyler Laursen. Tyler, Tyler is a 4WD businessman. He has his hands into a couple of things. The NorCal Rescue, MorrFlate is a business. And then he also is a podcaster with the SnailTrail 4×4. Tyler, thank you so much for coming on board and spending some time. And we’re going to talk about your history and off road.
[00:02:05.390] – Tyler Laursen
Yeah, dude, thanks for having me. This is pretty cool. I’m a big podcaster. I love podcasting. When you asked if I wanted to be on podcast, I was like, Sign me up, man. That sounds like fun.
[00:02:18.010] – Big Rich Klein
The other side of the microphone this time.
[00:02:20.640] – Tyler Laursen
Exactly.
[00:02:21.940] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah. Okay, so let’s go at the very beginning. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:27.690] – Tyler Laursen
Oh, man, I was born and raised in Tulare, California, which is down where the new biggest lake in California is at. Lake Tulare just reared its ugly head and started taking over the farmland down there this winter with all the water and the wet winter we’ve had. I grew up down there. So seeing this big ass lake that’s bigger square mileage than Tahoe right now, and it’s almost the same size as the Salton Sea. But it’s only like 2-3 feet deep over this entire square of mileage. But seeing this huge lake pop up down where I grew up, that’s pretty cool to watch it. I know it’s impacting a lot of farmland and there’s a lot of farmers losing out right now on it all, which is sad. But I don’t think that’s something that I’m ever going to see again in my lifetime. I grew up down in Tulare, and then I moved up to Visalia halfway through high school. And all throughout growing up, my dad was big into offroading. He was in, he still is in the club 4×4 Him, which has a couple of higher up board members from CORVA California now.
[00:03:53.180] – Tyler Laursen
So I grew up, it’s also the club that Marlin Czakowski from Marlin Crawler was in. So getting to grow up around that scene of Toyotas and dual cases as Marlin was developing the dual case in the 4 7 years, and then going wheeling up in the Shaver Lake area, growing up all the time. So that’s where this intro and passion into offroading in the outdoors started out for me was just growing up around these really cool people in the offroad industry and doing some really cool things with the vehicles.
[00:04:34.730] – Big Rich Klein
Well, that’s a great childhood. Being able to be out there with those… And it’s all family orientated, so that was probably pretty cool. Were some of the other members that your dad and family would wheel with, were there other kids involved?
[00:04:57.710] – Tyler Laursen
There was a few others. There was a couple of couples that really took me on almost like their kid on these trips. So I remember Dan’s gags, I believe his last name was Dr. Dan. And then… Sorry, Dave’s gags, that’s what his name is. And then Dave’s gags and Dr. Dan, two different people, and their wives and them were always… I would jump into their rigs and hang out with them for a few hours and then go jump in with other rigs. And when we went snow wheeling, they would set up an inner tube behind their vehicles, and I would jump in the inner tube and ride along for a while. And yeah, growing up in the club environment definitely ingrained this sense of community, I guess, and really enjoying going out and experiencing the outdoors with other people. READ MORE
