Rory Irish is the owner of Trail Mater and Moab Motorsports, an off-road recovery operation based in Utah. In this episode, he shares his unconventional path from surveying and pipeline welding in Colorado to becoming a YouTube sensation and industry figure.
Rory bounced between Moab, Utah and western Colorado throughout his childhood. After dropping out of high school, he earned his GED (scoring highest in Colorado that year) and spent five years as a surveyor before transitioning into construction and the oil field, where he learned welding.
Ten years ago, Rory moved back to Moab to build his recovery business, initially working at Moab 4×4 Outpost. When the original owner relocated, Rory and an investor purchased the shop, later buying out the investor in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed him toward full-time recovery work and YouTube content creation.
Trail Mater evolved from a simple tow truck into a specialized off-road recovery vehicle equipped with winches, welders, and custom tools. His YouTube channel now has massive reach.
Rory emphasizes that he’s an off-road recovery company first, YouTube channel second. He works closely with BLM and National Park Service to minimize environmental impact and refuses to stage recoveries for views.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:13.620] – Big Rich Klein
My guest this week took a few years to really find his calling, but find his calling he has done. My guest is Rory Irish, the owner of Trail Mater and Moab Motorsports. Well, it’s good to have you on the podcast, Rory Irish. I’m looking forward to this, this podcast and getting to know more about you before meeting you in Moab.
[00:01:40.860] – Rory Irish
Yeah, I’m excited.
[00:01:42.880] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, this will be great. So the first question I ask everybody, Rory, is where were you born and raised?
[00:01:49.540] – Rory Irish
So I was born in Moab, Utah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I haven’t made it very far.
[00:01:59.760] – Big Rich Klein
You have, but you’ve taken Moab to a whole new level. Let’s put it that way.
[00:02:07.540] – Rory Irish
Yeah, I was born in Moab and then I grew up between there and western Colorado.
[00:02:14.780] – Big Rich Klein
Okay, so the western slope. And where did you primarily do you know your early years? You know, I, I, both of those areas when you grew up was pretty rural, not like it is nowadays. I, I went to—
[00:02:31.360] – Rory Irish
let me see if I can remember how this goes because it gets wild. I went to first grade in Moab. I went to second grade in Parachute, Colorado. Okay, I went to third grade, third grade through sixth grade in Glenwood Springs. And then, uh, where did I go from there? Then I went to back to Moab for a year and then back to Parachute, Colorado, and did my whole high school in Parachute, Colorado. Until they told me I was gonna need, um, at least another year of, of school. So I dropped out and got my GED and scored highest in Colorado that year. So I was the smartest dumb kid in Colorado. READ MORE
