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So, I moved into the Jeep world in 1996. I started off at a Jeep dealer, and I quickly rose up. I was a shop foreman, working through the service department. In the early 2000s, one of my best friends bought a brand new Jeep Rubicon when it came out, and he took me out Jeeping with him, and within seconds I was hooked. I knew this was something I had to do. I wanted to do it within the dealership environment. The owners of the dealership weren't really into that. They really just kind of had this "make cash now, and not worry about the long run". And for me, everything's about the future and about relationships. I decided to just do my own thing. I knew that I liked people, I knew I could work well, I knew I could do the customer service aspect, and of course, I knew Jeeps. So, we started off tinkering around in a garage. We moved into our first small shop with one employee. My parents, they would come and work with me. My Dad and my Mom. As we grew, we expanded quickly. Customer service paid off. Our people trusted us. They kept coming back: we'd build one Jeep, they'd get another Jeep; we'd build a second Jeep, they'd trade that one in; we'd build a third Jeep. And just on and on. A lot of our clients go back 15 years. A lot of our clients go back to my dealership days: they followed me over. I don't believe in the "make a buck now" philosophy. It's not about "How many sales can we close today?" It's about how many relationships and how many longterm clients we can build, and then how do we keep them in the building? That's first and foremost here. Again, we ... Values-based is everything that we do. We know that if we do the right thing and if we help people, if we solve their challenges over and over again, they're going to keep coming back. And that's our goal: solve every challenge that they have in the best way possible. View the full article

When our jeeps are bought new they come out with an all season tire, and that all season tire it's really designed to work everywhere, drive, pavements, snow, ice, rain. They're designed to last a long time and they're designed to be quiet. They don't do us very much good off road, and so if you're planning on doing some trails, or you're getting into some mud, or some grassy fields, it's definitely not the choice. The next step up from there is going to be an all terrain tire. The all terrain tire is going to have some more lugs in it, larger pieces that can grab a hold of things and get a bite. There is going to be a lot of rain siping in there. That's going to be those small thin cuts that are in there. The all terrain tires are going to stay pretty quiet. They're not going to hear them much on the highway. They're typically going to have a mileage warranty, a 50, 60,000 mile tire, that kind of thing. The ride quality is pretty strong. The drawback to that all-terrain tires is it's going to fill up with mud, so if you were to get in a muddy situation, or if you were to have a rock ledge you needed to climb up with the lugs may not be opened up quite enough. In that mud situation, the tread is going to pack with mud, and so it's not going to clean out to get the next bite. The next step up from there would be what we consider a hybrid tire. That's a really nice cross between an all-terrain and a mud terrain tire, so we have characteristics of both. And if you look at the tread you'll typically find the center line of the tread is going to be more like an all terrain, but on the outer edge of a tire we're going to have some of those larger mud lugs that can get in there and get a bite and that'll clean out if you get them spinning and full of mud. It is not the best all terrain tire, it's not the best mud tire, but it's a really nice cross section. These tires remain quiet as well. The next step up from there is going to be your mud terrain tire. Now, this tire is going to have a little bit of sound to it on the highway. For some people this might be really annoying, and for others that are going to have the top off it may not matter, but it is something we want to make sure you're aware of. Most of the technology is still pretty decent that I consider them usable on a daily driven vehicle. Once we get into the mud terrain tire, we're going to lose the mileage guarantees and the road hazard. In our experience, you can expect anywhere between 40 to up to let's say 50,000 miles. As they get older, they tend to be prone to chop up a little bit and that can make them even louder, so it's really critical that you stay on top of your tire maintenance with a mud tire. It's not something you're going to put on and just forget about it for 60,000 miles. It's something that you're going to have to rotate all the time. You're going to have to stay on top of your tire alignments, your wheel alignments to keep these things from chopping up. You're going to need to balance them on a regular basis, and that'll extend their life, and of course keep them quieter. The next step up is going to be what we consider to be a dedicated off road tire. I genuinely don't recommend these for daily drivers. They're not going to be any good in the rain, and the snow, borderline dangerous, I would say. There is almost no rain technology in them. Now these are going to have really large lugs and they're going to be able to grab on to rock faces and ledges. They're going to be able to throw mud out pretty quickly and not pack up. And from the off road perspective, I think they're probably a great tire, but if you regularly travel more than 35 an hour, I think you're going to hate them because they're genuinely not round and they don't balance very well, so we consider those more suited for just off road vehicles only. When looking at a tire we'll look at the general size, the width, the tread design, the pattern, and what it's designed to do. We need to figure out where that client, where they're going to drive, and how they're going to drive, and make sure that we get a tire that fits into that cross section. View the full article

Here at Axleboy, we have found that a lot more women are getting into the Jeeping lifestyle. We want to make them feel welcome. We want to get their questions answered. We build trust with them and making sure that they feel that they can come to Axleboy and get the service and quality that they're looking for. One thing that we often hear is that at other places or dealerships, they just didn't feel respected, or they didn't get their questions answered. We make sure that that does not happen here at Axleboy. We make every Jeep enthusiast feel welcome. We have our hardcore wheelers who spends thousands of dollars only to take their Jeep out West to go wheeling, and then we have our daily driver folks who just come in and are looking for simple cosmetic upgrades. We welcome everyone here. We definitely welcome the women here. If you have questions you don't know the answers, we always make sure that we get you the answers that you need to understand why you would do that upgrade, the importance of it, the safety factor of it, and the cost. As when it comes to maintenance and mechanical issues, we definitely make sure that it is well-explained what failed, how much it's going to cost to repair it, and why that's important. Customers come in and often state that they heard their factory could be void if they do modifications, lift kits, et cetera. That in fact is not true. Your factory bumper-to-bumper warranty stays in place. It just doesn't cover the modified parts in regards to a lift kit or oversized tires, but there is legislation in place that protects you so your bumper-to-bumper warranty is still in fact intact. To learn more, visit us at axleboy.com, and we also have Axlegirl Trail Life and Axleboy Trail Life on Facebook. View the full article

One of our favorite things about some of our clients is that they just love the Jeep lifestyle. They like putting the top down, taking the doors off that open-air, outdoor experience. here at AxleBoy OffRoad, we'll work with many different styles of clients. Whether that's the jeep lifestyle client that's put the top down, take the doors off, go for a cruise on a sunny day. Maybe heading up to Utah, doing some four-wheeling, one out in Moab, maybe rooftop tent to go on the back roads and get that camping or fishing spot. Putting some kayaks on the top, maybe hanging a mountain bike off the back. All these different lifestyles. Somebody that's hauling kids to school, going to the soccer game, we're going to build a jeep entirely different in that situation. We're going to focus on things like drivability and safety, how it handles, what's going to happen when they have to make an evasive maneuver on the highway. You can be sure that AxleBoy OffRoad and our team of professionals is there to find out how you want to use your jeep and then make the recommendations that are going to get you there and back safely. Many of our clients at AxleBoy, they're not necessarily into-four wheeling or off-roading. Or maybe they're just getting into it and they enjoy and they feel comfortable to come in because we're not judging anybody. It doesn't matter to us whether they have mechanical knowledge or know everything about the Jeep world or maybe they don't know everything about the Jeep world. It's important to us to treat everybody the same. We're often told that the other area shops will almost be cocky or make them feel uncomfortable when they come in because they don't know all the details but here at AxleBoy, we're all about teaching the details. We want to share our passion of the sport with you and we work with the client. We work in a longterm relationship. That relationship is built entirely on trust. The clients come in, they know that we're going to recommend what they need, not just fancy parts to fill the ticket or pad that ticket and make it bigger. Everything that we do is revolved around each individual customer and the different way they might use their Jeep, whether that's going to the mall or going out to Moab, Utah, it doesn't matter. They're all the same guys. They're our friends and we expect we're gonna work with them for a long time. We know how to make these things handle. A lot of times people come in and talk about it's lifted Jeep. This is just how they drive, and that's the furthest thing from the truth. What we specialize in here is an extremely safe and predictable driving style many times better than it was when it rolled off the factory floor. We really know what works, what doesn't, and we know how to make it fit your lifestyle. View the full article