From the garage to where it is now, everything happens with hard work and innovation. Aaron Wedeking shares the PRP Origin Story and where they are going now, through the ups and downs and twists and turns. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
9:58 – I did well in school, but mostly, I was just waiting for the weekends!
16:53 – I’ve never set a goal, I just analyze the situation and think, What’s the smartest thing I can do today?
20:00 – We made six seats, I put them in the back of my Ford Ranger and this guy says, I’ll take them all. That’s how we started.
25:08 – I had two weeks of paternity leave from my CPA job, I ditched my wife at the hospital and picked up all the parts of that business to move it. A pretty crappy dad move and a real crappy husband move.
31:54 – It’s either work hard or be really smart, and I’m not, so I had to work hard
38:23 – it’s weird, when you’re in it, everything is stressful, it really fogs your vision.
43:01 – Nobody has come up with a lab test that can recreate exactly what happens in an off-road vehicle.
53:12 – We’re constantly innovating at PRP, and a lot of it comes from use.
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.840] – Big Rich Klein
Growing up in Temecula, California, seems to lead people into the off-road industry. Like my next guest that started off mowing lawns, then doing race prep, then construction, then into accounting, and then into building aftermarket off-road seats, Aaron Wedeking is one of those guys. Well, hello, Aaron Wedeking. So good to have you here on the podcast. We’ve known each other for quite a long time since I started CalRocs back in the day. So it’s really good to have you on here. We’re going to talk about your history.
[00:02:13.870] – Aaron Wedeking
That’s great. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. I appreciate it.
[00:02:17.110] – Big Rich Klein
All right. So let’s get started with the easiest question for you to answer. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:24.550] – Aaron Wedeking
I was born and raised in Temecula, place I still live. It’s It’s a great place in Southern California. A lot of off-road influence people, either have businesses there or from there or were there.
[00:02:40.550] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I can think of quite a few.
[00:02:42.400] – Aaron Wedeking
Yeah, it’s a great place to be. I really, really like it. Great place to raise a family, too.
[00:02:48.280] – Big Rich Klein
And lots of rocks.
[00:02:49.340] – Aaron Wedeking
Lots of rocks.
[00:02:53.080] – Big Rich Klein
I’ve always thought that would be a great place to own property. But now it’s grown up enough to where I don’t think I could afford to live there. Besides, I don’t live on a boat.
[00:03:05.350] – Aaron Wedeking
You just spend a bunch of time on a boat. How did that go?
[00:03:08.960] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, that was awesome. That looked great. We did a week cruising from the Eastern side of Florida, across Florida, on a 62-foot yacht. That’s what I’m going to call a yacht. We have a 48-foot boat. I don’t call it a yacht, but that 62-foot boat we were just on is a yacht. But we started off in Melbourne, went down the ICW, the Intercoastal Waterway, and then took a turn and went inland and went through Stuart, which is a really nice fishing area. But the boats in the houses along the Bay coming in there to St. Lucy River is just incredible. I mean, There’s more money than I can imagine.
[00:04:05.840] – Aaron Wedeking
Florida has attracted so much money. It’s crazy.
[00:04:09.470] – Big Rich Klein
And the houses that are built down there. But we went across through the… Our goal was to do the locks along the canals and then going across the Lake Okeechobe. So when we finally get a chance to do the great loop in our boat, we won’t have to go through that section. I want to go down and around the keys and all that. And so this was a good way to learn how to do locks. And so now I feel like I can take my boat into a lock and be comfortable and know what the process and the procedure is.
[00:04:47.330] – Aaron Wedeking
So that was the prep. Your goal is to take your boat and do that same or do the whole loop.
[00:04:51.960] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, that is correct. Are you familiar with the loop?
[00:04:55.330] – Aaron Wedeking
Yeah. My buddy and I moved to North Carolina, and so I’m I went to visit him, and we went out on his boat and did just a small piece of that channel there. I thought, he was explaining to me how the US built it for defense, and you can get up and down the whole Coast, you can go up to Mississippi. Being a West Coast guy and an off-road guy, never been anything I’ve ever been aware of until then. That’s really cool. And that’s my style. If I can see land, I think I’m okay floating, but I get so freaking sick. I’d be chumming the waters the whole time if I. READ MORE
