A few weeks ago, TSTDRVR crossed a milestone I wasn't entirely sure we'd ever reach: YouTube monetization. In the grand scheme of the internet, a channel with roughly 2,000 subscribers becoming monetized isn't exactly front-page news. I'm not quitting my job, and the first YouTube check certainly isn't buying a Ford Raptor. But it did give me an idea.
For the last decade, I've spent much of my career building businesses, products, teams, and systems. I started wondering what would happen if I took some of what I've learned and applied it to something I genuinely love: cars, trucks, road trips, modifications, and the stories that come with them. More importantly, what if all of that effort had a destination?
I've wanted a Ford Raptor for years. I've also owned my 2018 F-150 for nearly eight of them, and if you've followed TSTDRVR for any length of time, you know I'm not particularly good at leaving vehicles alone. I've spent thousands modifying the truck, changing the suspension, wheels, tires, headlights, stereo, interior, and more. I've installed things that worked beautifully and a few things that didn't. Most of that journey now lives on the F-150 Modifications page.
For years, TSTDRVR was simply a place to share the things I was already doing. Over the past year, however, something started to change. The audience grew. Companies began reaching out about products and partnerships. Viewers purchased products through affiliate links, and people I'd never met started showing up in the comments to ask questions, share their own experiences, and follow along with the builds. When the channel finally became monetized, TSTDRVR crossed an interesting threshold: For the first time, it wasn't just costing money. It was earning it.
That led me to a question I couldn't quite shake. Could TSTDRVR actually earn its way to a Ford Raptor? Not win one in a sweepstakes or have one handed over by a sponsor, but build a channel capable of earning one.
That's the idea behind The Raptor Chapter.
The challenge is straightforward. Revenue generated by TSTDRVR through YouTube advertising, partnerships, affiliate commissions, and merchandise will build what I've dubbed the Raptor Fund. I've created a Raptor Chapter scoreboard to publicly track progress, and when I filmed the first episode, the fund had already surpassed $1,000. That's an exciting number until you put it next to the roughly $65,000 price of the truck we're chasing.
Still, the early results offer a glimpse of how this might work. Our CarABC 12-inch SYNC 3 installation video generated affiliate sales because viewers found it useful, and some ultimately decided the upgrade made sense for their own trucks. The channel earned a commission in return. It's a small transaction, but an important one: Create something genuinely useful, help someone make a more informed decision, and potentially generate revenue in the process. The same thinking is behind the F-150 modifications page, where years of upgrades to my truck now serve as a resource for other owners researching their own builds.
The first Raptor Chapter episode also brought a new partner into the fold. 3W Liners provided a set of all-weather floor liners for my F-150, which I've been using in place of the factory carpeted mats. They're the sort of partnership I want TSTDRVR to pursue as the channel grows: products relevant to the vehicles we own and potentially useful to the people who watch. You can see the 3W Liners featured in the video here. They provided the liners, but the opinions are my own, and I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
We've even opened a TSTDRVR merchandise store, including a collection dedicated to The Raptor Chapter. YouTube revenue, a floor mat partnership, an affiliate commission, a T-shirt sale: None of these things buys a Raptor on its own. The experiment is to find out what happens when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of those small things begin pulling in the same direction.
The funny thing is that the Raptor itself isn't really the point. It's the destination, certainly, and I'd very much like to see one sitting in my garage someday. But the story is everything that happens between here and there: the builds we'll tackle, the products we'll test, the road trips we'll take, the companies we'll work with, the people we'll meet, and the mistakes I'll inevitably make along the way.
My F-150 isn't going anywhere, and neither is the BMW. If anything, those projects matter more now. Every install, review, and road trip is another story to tell and another opportunity to move TSTDRVR forward. Maybe eventually all those stories add up to a Ford Raptor sitting in the garage. Maybe they don't.
I genuinely don't know, which is precisely why the experiment is worth doing. TSTDRVR is beginning The Raptor Chapter with roughly 2,000 subscribers and a fund that effectively started at zero. There's a long way to go, but now we have a destination.
And that's usually where the best road trips begin.
