'For Your Viewing Pleasure' -- Suggestions for Hidden YouTube Gems?

[stuzbot]

I find that I'm watching stuff on YouTube a lot more than on regular telly these days. Regular telly just seems so dumbed down and fake that even programmes that on the face of it should interest me just seem really tacky and staged. And, of course nothing gets on TV without some obnoxious 'Look at me! Look at me!' zzz-elebrity fronting it and trying to steal the limelight.

I've been pleasantly surprised that, in amongst the absolute mountains of junk on YouTube, there are actually some interesting people making some well produced and interesting content. So, here are a couple of my favourites. I've pretty much exhausted the playlists on all of these, which is why I thought I'd throw the idea out to see if any of you lot have discovered any hidden YouTube gems.

1: https://www.youtube.com/user/4xforum -- 4xOverland. Andrew St. Pierre White [or Cynthia, as I call him]. Lots of opinionated stuff on 4x4s in general and he's a big fan of Land Cruisers. Some of the earlier videos are a bit VHS-y in quality. But many of the later ones are shot in HD with drone footage and are great viewing. Especially his travelogues across Africa and Australia

2: https://www.youtube.com/c/4WD247 --4WD 24-7. Australian gang of 4x4 nutters who go on epic treks around Australia's toughest tracks and seem to spend as much time winching each other's trucks out of trouble as they do driving them. The chemistry between them is great and they come across as 'a great bunch o' lads' to hang about with.

3: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5iNSo8ml7fq31t3K6m5Vgw --Maximus Ironthumper. This guy's 'living the dream' in my book. A trained metal worker, he bought himself a plot of land which he lives on, off grid. He's pretty much built his own house, barns, workshop, everything and his place is littered with old Land Rovers, trucks and machinery which he's always restoring, or tearing apart to build some other contraption. Another bloke who comes across as a really genuine guy you'd love to have a pint with.

4: https://www.youtube.com/c/MattsOffRoadRecovery --Matt's Off-Road Recovery. American crew based in Utah who run a business rescuing people who've become stuck in the middle of nowhere, usually in 4x4s. They're a bit like the AA, only with more use of winches.

5: https://www.youtube.com/user/retrorestore --Retro Restore. 'E's a proper cockney geezer this bloke. His channel is pretty much him fixing up old bikes and motors he's bought. They don't tend to be the kind of vehicles I'm interested in [although his restoration of an old Only Fools and Horses Trotter van is pretty good]. But I like the way he's kind of 'warts and all'. He's not afraid to show when he cocks things up, or they don't work properly and he's got an amazingly painstaking and perfectionist attitude to what he does.

6: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6SNxiLzSlh8e0yjndE9o_A --Cruising The Cut. A bit more genteel this one. this guy sold his house and bought a narrowboat to live in permanently. This is basically his video blog about sorting stuff out on the boat and pottering around the English canal system. He comes across as a bit wet when it comes to manly mechanical things --like he'll post an entire video about how he fitted a door handle or suchlike. But he seems a pleasant enough bloke. And living on a canal boat and just pottering about the place is another one of those things that's always appealed to me.

Well, there you go folks. There's some of my recommended viewing for the discerning forum member who likes; 4x4s, the outdoors, nice scenery and down to earth people tinkering with machines. Any of you got any recommendations, along similar lines?

 

[Graham]

Been watching these for a few years

 

[Beijing Ballie]

if you at all interested in brackets give Project Binky a visit, just search for Binky. Couple of guys restoring a mini with a difference.

 

[Trevor]

I love Project Binky, watched it so far a couple of times. A masterclass in fabrication.

 

[Raj]

Stuzbot its really good you had them all in one place. Very helpful. I used to watch Cynthia regularly but lately I felt he is more inclined towards paid presentations. He had good videos on Land cruisers but then felt he shifted to land rovers so stopped following him but sometimes look for his videos on land cruisers.

 

[stuzbot]

I used to watch Cynthia regularly but lately I felt he is more inclined towards paid presentations. He had good videos on Land cruisers but then felt he shifted to land rovers so stopped following him but sometimes look for his videos on land cruisers.

Yes. He does seem to get a lot of freebies thrown at him which kind of erodes his credibility a bit when he's recommending stuff. But I still kind of like the guy and enjoy it when he goes off on one of his rants with his wee arms waving about. I've never seen anyone who can get so worked up about what tyre pressure to use on a sand dune, or the best way to wire a second battery.

He's got quite a good playlist ongoing at the minute, where he bought an old 1970s Range Rover unseen off eBay and is driving it home across the width of Australia. Of course, being Cynthia, it's not quite as intrepid as it sounds on the face of it, as he took it to a garage first, where they pretty much replaced anything that looked even slightly likely to fail. It's still a good watch though. Even if you're not a big fan of Solihull's finest.

 

[Raj]

ya I too watched his Range Rover episode. Its good one. He is an encyclopedia. Apart from netflix n amazon the only other thing I watch is youtube so while working his videos go on in background for hours. Cynthia talks about all models of Land Cruisers and lot of off road lessons and equipment reviews.
I found XploringOz videos very informative for newer land cruisers. He has a crawl control demonstration for 200, which really surprises me how capable Land Cruisers are and wonder how much of it we use.

 

[Raj]

Matts off road recovery, I like this guys videos n the girl in it. She knows more about off roading than many SUV owners.

 

[Raj]

If we notice, most of Land Cruiser videos are from other parts of the world. I struggled to find ones from UK. Search UK Land cruiser only Matt or car buyers reviews comes on. This Matt is such a biased yet funny guy.

 

[Grimbo]

4WD 24-7
Yes the best of the bunch , lot's of mickey taking, funny cooking segments , vehicles all of us in the UK would kill for ....what's not to like.

I would add youtuber "Itchy Boots" to the list -
A cool Dutch lady who spends her time ridding around the world on motorbikes .... last series she was in S Africa on a Honda 250 trail bike ....

 

[ram]

On her bike, a polish lady from Australia currently riding a BMW 800 gs in Zambia.

 

[stuzbot]

Oh. The bike related ones have reminded me of this one...

7: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiUJqMrz7-QNMcyiGo5mBhdqXqSM1XJQH -- C90Adventures --Bloke and his girlfriend attempt to ride from Alaska to Argentina on a couple of C90 mopeds. I really enjoyed it at the start as the chemistry between them was great. But [spoiler alert] they split up about halfway through and I didn't think it was quite as good after that, with just the guy on his own.

 

[Chris]

Her name is Kinga and her bike is called Chilli. Her channel is called 'on her bike'

 

[clivehorridge]

Been fascinated by Gutn Tog‘s videos of Iceland’s latest erupting volcano recently.
He’s not the best videographer by a long way, but I just like the simple and ordinary way he presents.

And speaking of Matt’s Offroad Recovery, what about that Offroad Corvair they’ve just built? What a cool machine that is, I love it.

 

[stuzbot]

Cheers for the recommendations. I just started watching Project Binky last night. That should keep me going for a while.

 

[stuzbot]

Here's another one I stumbled across this week. Bloke from NZ rebuilding an old Series 3 Land Rover. Having owned one of them myself, aeons ago, I feel his pain:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNR9e5gIAR0ep6TiEuqNJB_I1ohTZ4bg_

And BTW --who says subliminal advertising doesn't work?

I'd been threatening to buy myself an impact wrench for a while now. after spending far too much of my life lying under various motors, wrestling with rusted solid bolts and swearing like a trooper. And, finally, since it was my birthday at the end of June, I decided it was time to pull the trigger.

As is usual with these things, I'd spent so much time reading and watching often contradictory reviews that I didn't know which one to go for. Then, while watching Project Binky, I noticed they had this funny light green impact wrench that they used all the time. Given the length of their project, I thought that was a pretty good recommendation as to the effectiveness and durability of the product. Trouble was, they never seemed to show it from an angle where you could see the brand name. So I had no idea what it was. Eventually, though, in one episode, I caught a glimpse of "KIEL.." as one of the lads picked it up. So off I went to Amazon, looking through loads of photos of impact wrenches for a sickly green one, branded KIEL... something, til I eventually found this...

I'm still not quite sure whether or not I've been played by the cleverest bit of product placement ever: 'Show the item without revealing the brand name and make the potential purchaser track it down themselves'. But, whatever, all I can say is "Where have you been all my life!". This thing span my wheel nuts off as if they weren't there and equally laughed in the face of the various crusted bolts holding my LBJs on. Even undoing the castle nut on the old LBJ whose cotter pin had rusted solid inside the bolt and couldn't be extracted only took a few seconds. I'm actually looking forward to the next time I have to fight a recalcitrant bolt now, instead of dreading it.

 

[karl2000]

First time I used an impact wrench (and an SDS drill for that matter), I couldn't quite believe it either!

 

[Raj]

Anyone watch Scotty Kilmer videos? He is one big fan of Toyota n Lexus. I watch regularly. Recently while watching one of his videos, I thought of sending email to him but found he passed away.

 

[Jake the Peg]

More biking..https://youtu.be/ZFTgX6Vnk0Q. Not dead yet, shows the highs and lows of solo travel

 

[stuzbot]

Seeing as @Raj has breathed a bit of life into this thread again, here's a couple more I've been bingeing on of late:

9: https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjectFarm/featured --Project Farm.

This guy posts comparison tests between different brands and price ranges of all kinds of vaguely 'mechanical' things; oils, tools, gadgets, etc. For most of which, he rigs up his own 'Heath Robinson' type test beds. He's out in America somewhere, so a lot of the brands he compares are Yank ones we don't get over here. But there are enough in there that you will have heard of to keep it strangely interesting. Maybe it's just me but scrolling through his channel I suddenly find myself desperately wanting to know "What is the best brand of ratchet strap?" or "How does 60 year old motor oil compare to modern?"

10: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKviSuITHRgz0Xp1jtbjkKQ --Lord Muck.

I've been watching a few of this guys' "Will it start..?" videos as, watching 40 year old abandoned engines crank into life is strangely rewarding. I've got to admit the guy himself comes across as a bit of an obnoxious nobber and often has about 10 mins of ranting about how little he cares about what people say in the comments [which is proof positive of just how much he does care]. But I usually fast forward those bits and just watch the engines being coaxed into life.