Mike Stump – from off-road to electronics, back to off-road with electronics. Yep, we all come full-circle. Give Episode 106 a listen on your favorite podcast channel – or YouTube! Yep, we release on YouTube now at the same time as we release everywhere else – be sure to Subscribe to the channel: Big Rich Klein.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Conversations with Big Rich on your favorite Podcast Player
7:49 – they gave me lots of candy
13:28 – we’re going to have beachfront property!
20:00 – just call me Push Start
23:30 – I was kinda a liability.
42:24 – the first black diamond coilover kit
47:34 – at what point do you let go of the throttle?
54:50 – a funny story with Roggy (aren’t they all?)
1:05:59 – it was a sh*t show
1:22:43 – learning all the idiosyncrasies about LEDs
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:41.950] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have Mike Stump. Mike is an old time friend of mine. I think we met somewhere around. Well, I probably saw him the first time in 1999. We’ll get into that down in Johnson Valley, but I believe I met him right after I moved out of Utah and back to California, probably up on the Rubicon or at a party somewhere. Anyway, Mike competed was one of 42 drivers in our first event at Lake Amador for the Calrocs put up or shut up. So he’s definitely an OG in my mind with us. Hey, Mike, let’s talk about your life and good to have you on here.
[00:02:26.110] – Mike Stump
Oh, Rich, I appreciate you having me on here. It’s good to talk to you again. We visited almost eight months ago or a year ago when I met you at your house.
[00:02:39.100] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I think it was about six or eight months ago, right?
[00:02:43.340] – Mike Stump
Yeah. It was the first time I’ve seen you in quite a long time. So it was great to see you again.
[00:02:47.110] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah. And let’s rock and roll on this podcast thing and let’s find out more about you. So where were you born and raised?
[00:02:58.190] – Mike Stump
Well, that may be a little bit of a long story.
[00:03:00.570] – Big Rich Klein
Like I said, but I was actually more of the time we need today.
[00:03:06.590] – Mike Stump
Technically, I was actually born here in Utah. I was born in Salt Lake City in 1969. My parents were for whatever reason, I don’t know why, but happened to be on a road trip while my mother was nine and a half months pregnant. God knows why they were doing that, but he happened to be passing through Salt Lake City when she went into labor and well, about four or five days later released out of the hospital and they finished their road trip they were living in, I want to say at the time they were living in Las Vegas. So after they finished their road trip over, we went back to Las Vegas. Spent probably the first just from my recollection from what they told me about the first maybe three to four years of my life, maybe five years in Vegas and outside of Vegas area. And then my parents decided to move to Godforsaken California.
[00:04:04.810] – Big Rich Klein
Well, come on now. When they moved there, it was a damn nice state and absolutely yeah.
[00:04:13.620] – Mike Stump
We won’t get into the politicals but yes, when they moved there, California was a great state and we moved up to the Sacramento area, bounced around quite a few different little houses there. My parents situation was quite volatile. So we did move around quite a bit. They had a lot of their own issues. So in the house, out of the house, I end up actually living back with my grandparents in Winnamucca, Nevada for about four years or so. And then from there I moved back. I was able to move back, my parents back into the Sacramento area. That was about 12/13 years old. We actually moved into Placerville, El Dorado County right around that time and exactly,God’s country. Spent the next 30 plus years in El Dorado County growing up, going to high school there. What days? I did actually attend school, probably doing more wheeling and drinking than I did going to school. A lot of us back then. But yeah, the rest of my growing up in El Dorado County from there on end up getting got married, my first wife at 21, 22. I think it was right in there.
[00:05:41.410] – Mike Stump
Had our first son before we got married. So he was the ring bearer for our wedding.
[00:05:48.250]
Nice.
[00:05:49.630] – Mike Stump
Yeah, it was quite interesting. I was married to her for almost ten years. Things didn’t work out as they do with a lot of them. We actually had a second kid during that time. So I’ve got two boys, my son Devon and my son Chad who are 30 and 26 now, I believe from there during that time I worked quite a few different jobs, but mostly in the off road industry. I worked for Central Four Wheel Drive for quite a while, worked for S&H Four Wheel Drive down in Sacramento, one in Auburn, which I can’t think of the name right now, but worked in an off road shop there for quite a while. Probably the longest since I had with an off road shop was with Four Wheel Parts Wholesalers in Sacramento. Was there for about two and a half years. I went in there as salesman. Within six months I was the assistant manager and two months later was the general manager. Of the store, stayed there for about two and a half years and was actually very successful there, made that store. It was actually the top gross profit wise, was the top producing store out of all their stores by about 4% over any of their other stores.
[00:07:03.250] – Mike Stump
But I had the Rubicon and all the Jeepers to back me there. So we made sure we carried lots inventory for a Jeep product, and it worked out really well. READ MORE
