Brian: Tell us a bit about yourself...
Hayden: I am 19 years old and I would like to say right off the bat that I know I am a very lucky kid. I’d just like to give big thank you shout out to my parents, because they do so much for me and give me so much, and I will always be grateful and thankful for them. If it wasn’t for my mom and dad, I wouldn’t even have an FJ in the first place, so I am incredibly humbled to be so privileged to have such supportive parents. Love you guys.
I was born in San Francisco where my dad was going to podiatry school, we’ve lived in Southern CA, and southeastern Utah, but I’ve been living in Cortez, Colorado for over 10 years, so it’s home to me. Cortez is located in the southwest corner of Colorado only about 20 miles from the 4-corners (where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona all converge in one spot.) I’ve been attending Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah for my freshman year of college this last year with a bass trombone scholarship, so I lived in Utah for the past year, but for this summer I’m back at home in Colorado.
While at school, I was studying music performance (a career field I don’t plan on going into) but while there I started the UVU Off-Road Adventure Club since there wasn’t an off-roading club at the school already. Man it was a blast! We went on off-roading excursions at least once a month and at the end of the year, we actually took a 3 hour trip southeast of Orem down to Moab in the Arches National Park area as a club which was great! At school, I also got to take some digital media classes, and with the information and skills I’ve learned from those classes, I have made videos of my off-road adventures which I put on YouTube, I definitely recommend checking them out!
Over the summer, I am working at a local Coldstone Creamery and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store to get some cash for off-roading trips, it’s a pretty fun job and if any of you are ever coming through Cortez, drop by and I’ll serve you up some ice cream! I started working there when it first opened about 4 years ago and yes, about half of the money I’ve earned from working there has gone into mods, but I’ve also saved most of my earnings for serving an LDS mission, but I’ll get to that later.
In my family, there are my parents, me, and then I have one younger sister, so we don’t have a huge family like my parents had wanted, but being small has its advantages. On both of my parents’ sides of the family, everyone is pretty close, so growing up in a good family has really been a delight for me, and has played a big part in making me who I am today. Most of both sides of my family are located in Utah, so going to school at UVU and getting to go for free food and laundry at my grandma’s house was a super nice plus, as well as getting to see a lot of my cousins and extended family very often.
As for some of my other hobbies, besides all the FJ Cruiser stuff and off-roading, I enjoy leaning about dinosaurs and paleontology, space and astronomy, electronic media, music (both listening and playing), camping, sight-seeing, and most of all… TRAINS!! I’ve always been (and always will be) a train fanatic. I love learning about trains, collecting and running model trains, and seeing and riding real trains, especially old steam locomotives.
Brian: Is the FJ Cruiser your first offroad vehicle? If so what led you to owning an FJC?
Hayden: The FJ Cruiser is indeed my first off-road vehicle (as well as being my first vehicle period!) What led me to getting an FJ Cruiser was actually because a really good family friend and neighbor of mine had just purchased a used 2008 Sun Fusion FJ and I just fell in love with his. In my mind, the FJ was like a tank! And also, for years and years, I had loved Hummers, and I guess subconsciously I saw that same tough/cool look in the FJ that I saw in the Hummer as a kid. Also, when my family was first looking at getting me a car, I had always wanted something more sporty and fast, but my mom wanted something that I would be safer in and would be better for where I live where there is snow and deer and rougher roads. My dad also wanted to be able to use whatever I got to go hunting with up in the mountains, so in the end, the FJ Cruiser was the winner! We found it after looking for many months on KSL.com from a seller out of Boise, Idaho. It is a 2007 TRD Special Edition FJ Cruiser. Originally, I never even thought about going off-roading with my FJ, and I actually had it for almost a year before I went on my first real off-roading trip, but after that trip, I was HOOKED!!!!
Brian: What modifications have you done to your FJ Cruiser to date?
Hayden: To date, most of the modifications I have done have been visual mods that really just increase the visual appeal and “awesomeness” of the look of my rig, but there are a few actual mods that I have done that have increased my FJ’s off-road prowess if you will. I have all my mods listed in my build thread but some of my favorite mods have been my 305/70R16 Fierce Attitude MT tires (along with the 1.25” Spidertrax wheel spacers and body mount chop), the Bushwacker Pocket Style Fender Flares, the blacked out trim pieces so my FJ has a blacked out look, and my 8000K 55W DDM Tuning HID Bi-Xenon headlights. I also really like the LED strips that I have added to my center console so that they shine down on the buttons and switches and the fact that I have replaced all of the bulbs that are that nasty stock yellow color with nice new cool white LEDs from superbrightleds.com.