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Big Load, Small Road

Committed. It’s good to be willingly committed to a relationship, career, sport, hobby, or goal. Commitment turns a woeful corner when it becomes unwilling. In our case, we were unwillingly committed to a road into a Southern California OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) area. The narrow, rocky switchback “road” down the side of the mountain wasn’t the wrong way per se. In fact, Google Maps had recommended it as the fastest route to our destination. However, it was the wrong path for a truck with a bed camper towing a Jeep. It was steep and narrow and littered with rocks, and the mountain highway above was too busy to back out onto again. So began our slow, nerve-wracking adventure down the treacherous “road.” You could say the adrenaline rush was fun,…

Big Load, Small Road

RAM COMMERCIAL ADDS VIRTUAL REALITY TO UPFITTING Seems 3-D has made its way to upfitting—Ram Commercial has created two new ways to help customers with upfitting ideas. One is the Ram Augmented Reality Upfit Configurator, a virtual-realitystyle way to see the upfit options on the truck via a virtual walkaround, including looking inside the truck. The other program is called Q Pro and is a certification that designates that certain upfitter products have met Ram Engineering standards. HERE’S HOW MUCH GETTING STUCK IN TRAFFIC IS COSTING YOU You already know how much time it feels like you’re wasting sitting in traffic: forever. But INRIX, which does transportation analytics, figured it out, right down to the hour: an average of 42 hours per year. And you want that translated into dollar…

•“…its planned W-15 electric pickup truck will go from 0 to 60 mph in just 5.5 seconds.” That’s according to a statement from Workhorse Group. •Hmmm, Ford patented a sliding pickup bed design for its F-150 hybrid? •UPS is investing more than $90 million. In what? Natural gas for its advanced-tech and alt-fuel fleet. •It appears the long-awaited Jeep pickup has been delayed until 2019. •Mercedes-Benz built a concept pickup called X-Class. Then it decided to release the fancy truck in Europe and Latin America, among other markets. And now, there’s talk of the U.S. as well. •Eaton and Cummins are teaming up on automatic transmissions for mediumand heavy-duty commercial vehicles. The venture is called Eaton Cummins Automated Transmissions Technologies, so we probably could have left it at that and…

Cozy Cargo Keeping cargo protected is a huge priority for work truck owners, and one great way to do that is the smooth, soft BedRug. Now available for both the Nissan Titan Crew Cab’s 5.5-foot bed and the King Cab’s 6.5-foot bed, BedRug uses closed-cell foam on the underside to protect the truck bed from abrasion, giving it its signature smooth surface that’s easy on your knees. A BedRug is also rugged and easy to clean, making it a good option for bed protection. BedRug 615-847-0020 • bedrug.com In for the Long Haul If you’re putting in thousands of miles on the open road, you don’t want to be stopping every few hours for fuel. That’s why Transfer Flow offers the largest aftermarket fuel tank for the ’17 Ford F-Series…

When someone sets out to build his version of a perfect truck, the process can be as simple as changing the paint color, or it can involve completely revamping a driveline, suspension, or exterior. Many times, a “perfect build” somehow incorporates all of this, which is exactly what we learned after talking to Chavis Fryer about the beefy-looking ’03 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD you see here. If Chavis’ name sounds familiar, it’s because he is one of the faces that regularly appears on the Discovery Channel TV show Diesel Brothers. He’s an engine guy and is well known in the Duramax world, so it makes sense that his personal truck is a General Motors product with the venerable 6.6L V-8 engine under the hood. However, powerplant aside, one of the neatest…

Arconic Davenport Works

Along the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa, sits an enormous 6,500,000-square-foot structure filled with massive machinery. It is home to the Davenport Works plant owned by Arconic (formerly Alcoa), which produces some of the aluminum Ford requires for its vehicles, like the F-150. A recent tour allowed us to see how the aluminum sheeting is manufactured and look back on how the automotive world has changed since the aluminum Ford F-150 was unveiled. Alcoa Inc. split into two publically traded companies near the end of 2016—Alcoa Corp., the commodity side, and Arconic Inc., the manufactured-products side. We will refer to the new name, Arconic, over Alcoa. The Davenport Works Plant While the Mississippi River may be a stone’s throw away from the plant, inside the nondescript building—which is large enough…

Arconic Davenport Works

HORSIN’ AROUND

Are you familiar with the notion of the cobbler’s son always being the last person to get new shoes? This misfortune is often the norm in the world of diesel performance, as the hardworking men and women who spend days and nights applying their skills to customers’ trucks almost always have personal projects that only receive attention after the paying work is done. Jack Naleway is one of those cobblers, and his personal ’01 Dodge Ram 2500 is more than just a typical project. The truck is a tow rig, daily driver, and part-time drag racer, and it is built exactly the way he wants it. “I bought this truck back in 2007 when it had 86,000 miles on it,” Jack says. “I was pretty particular with what I was…

The 2017 Wor k Truck Show

The yearly Work Truck Show is the industry’s leading event, and 2017 was no exception. Put on by the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA), WTS 2017 brought together more than 500 vendors, 11,799 total attendees, members of the media, and industry bigwigs for a fourday romp around the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis. As with previous Work Truck Show events, there was a strong emphasis on green technology and efficiency this year. Keeping up with constantly evolving regulations and consumer demands, the work truck (and truck equipment) industry is rife with new innovations that make trucking greener, leaner, and (hopefully) more costeffective. That new tech came from sources as diverse as toolbox manufacturers, OEMs like Ford, and specialty vehicle manufacturers like Mitsubishi Fuso. However, it’s not just evolving environmental…

The 2017 Wor k Truck Show

“What the Industry Needs to Know About Recruiting and Keeping Millennials”

The NTEA hosted several information sessions, including a panel discussion between the audience and six Millennial-age employees and executives. Moderated by Interchange Group Principal (and generational expert) Amy Hirsh Robinson, the panel answered audience questions on how to attract Millennials to the work truck industry and keep them there. Robinson pointed out a few key challenges the industry will face in the future, primarily thanks to the lessons Millennials learned from their Baby Boomer and Generation X parents. The highly individual Millennial generation craves self-esteem and positive reinforcement, and thanks to their upbringing in a post-9/11 world, they understand their globalized world more intrinsically than some of their elders. Furthermore, Millennials tend to be very close with their parents, and they tend to operate best in collaborative, cooperative environments. Millennials…

Interview With Shyam Nagrani, Motiv Power Systems Vice President, Business Development

Motiv Power Systems is one of the industry’s leading companies in all-electric conversions. Founded in 2009 by Jim Castelaz, the company currently produces electrified versions of the Ford F-53, F-59, and E-Series stripped-chassis trucks, as well as the Ford E-Series cutaway van and Crane Carrier refuse truck. Riding a wave of good news at the 2017 Work Truck Show, Shyam Nagrani of Motiv Power Systems sat down with Work Truck Review for an informal Q&A about the company’s past, present, and future. Work Truck Review: What has your growth been like since you opened shop? Shyam Nagrani: We had seven employees in 2011. Today, we have 53. We just moved last year to a new facility with much more space. WTR: How do changes in environmental regulations affect your funding?…

Interview With Shyam Nagrani, Motiv Power Systems Vice President, Business Development

Joe Dipola of St. Cloud, Florida, is a general contractor, building homes and commercial properties in central Florida. One of the necessities of the job is a truck that can handle heavy loads, tow Joe’s huge, double-axle trailer, and transport his crew to the job site. Obviously, lots of commercial vehicles qualify, but Joe smiles when he says he’s an impulse buyer. While many of us might buy a candy bar or shirt on impulse, Joe demonstrated his awesome allegiance to big trucks by purchasing this huge six-door Ford, a strong and sturdy ride capable of hard work but with a definite custom side. Built by Super Truck in Augusta, Georgia, Joe’s ’07 Ford F-650 has a new, longer chassis and a new rear cab section. It’s almost as long…

Cool and Bright

It’s a common problem on ’99-to-’06 General Motors fullsize trucks and SUVs, and we’ve all seen the symptoms: running around with only one daytime running light (DRL) working, or none at all. Simply put, the bulbs and sockets roast themselves to death over time due to the high amount of heat produced by the factory-spec incandescent bulbs. This can also cause the original reflective coating inside the light housing to flake off, requiring ultimate replacement of the lower turn signal and DRL housing itself. We recently replaced the front headlights and turn signals on an ’04 Chevy Avalanche. At the time of the replacement, we also put a fresh set of OE-spec bulbs in the housing. We noted some discoloration of the DRL sockets, as well as some distortion and…

Cool and Bright

Working rigs invariably have to do two things really well: tow and haul. But when you load up the bed and hitch up a seriously heavy trailer, the handling can sometimes feel crazier than Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride—even if you’re within your vehicle’s load limits. If your trailer starts to bob up and down or sway like a pendulum because your tow vehicle can’t control the load, you could quickly find yourself in a very dangerous highway situation. Installing airbags on your truck or van can help prevent unwanted erratic motion and excessive body roll, resulting in a confident, controlled towing and hauling experience. Air springs have been around for decades, with a wide range of applications: RVs, trains, 18-wheel big rigs, race cars, street rods, and even in the…

It’s been more than a decade since high-pressure common-rail technology revolutionized the diesel industry. With its first application appearing on the ’01 LB7 Duramax engine, it should come as no surprise that the heart of these systems— the high-pressure pump—hits a point where it’s time for either a rebuild or replacement. The Bosch CP3, used on the ’01-to-’10 Duramax and ’03-to-current Cummins engines, is known to last 250,000 miles or more before needing to be replaced. Of course, performance enthusiasts also know these pumps are only capable of supporting approximately 500 hp. When it came time to rebuild the CP3 on our ’02 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, we headed over to the experts at Industrial Injection. Founded in 1985, Industrial Injection has been in the business of repairing and rebuilding diesel…

“Rebuilt” Injectors

When we picked up our ’02 Chevrolet Silverado for this build, it was advertised as having new injectors, which is a common theme with LB7-equipped trucks for sale across the nation. However, as we came to find out, the injectors in our specimen were likely original and none of them were in good working order. Since we were headed to Industrial anyway, we asked if we could bring the injectors along for a quick inspection. The results were shocking, but not surprising. While all were bad, we did find they had a set of 20-percent-over nozzles installed, which were new. What likely happened was a nozzle swap being advertised as “rebuilt” injectors. So buyers beware: Unless the seller can produce receipts for new Bosch injectors, it’s fair to assume the…

“Rebuilt” Injectors

Tools of the Trade

It’s arguable that an operator’s trailer is his second most important tool, behind only the pickup towing it. And as anyone who has towed anything before can attest, one of the most frustrating experiences (aside from reversing, for some) is loading, unloading, and maneuvering in the dark. There’s no secret that utility trailers today come woefully illequipped when it comes to lighting, often sporting nothing more than the bare minimum for DOT compliance. Ancient incandescent technology is still the standard, and any kind of weatherproofing is almost certainly an upcharge. Fortunately, we live in a time when light-emitting diode (LED) technology is improving at a quick pace, and prices are dropping equally as rapidly. When it came time to set about upgrading the lighting on our utility trailer, we turned…

Tools of the Trade

Readers’ Rigs

Surf and Saddles ■ YEAR/MAKE/MODEL: ’05 Dodge Ram 3500 ■ OWNER: Chuck Herwig ■ HOMETOWN: Playa Jaco, Costa Rica ■ ENGINE: 5.9L Cummins I-6 ■ TRANSMISSION: G56 six-speed manual ■ ODOMETER: 88,000 miles ■ FUEL ECONOMY: 16 to 19 mpg ■ MODIFICATIONS: Mopar Severe Duty fuel-filter system, Banks Power Six-Gun diesel tuner, 4-inch MBRP exhaust, Banks Power Ram-Air intake system, Pro Comp USA leveling kit, Mopar updated steering kit, 33-inch Falken Wildpeak tires on stock wheels, Alpine sound system ■ OWNER SAYS: “This truck is the only one I have, and it does everything I ask of it. It takes me surfing, plus it hauls 60 40-pound bales of hay, 2 beautiful Costa Rican stepping horses in the bed (with a semi rack made of Costa Rican teakwood), or a…

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