Completed
Jinxy
Believe it or not, Jinxy is nearing the end of its life as a project vehicle. After 15 years of working on it and building it, the truck is basically done. It’s not the fully ’caged Class 8 racing truck that I planned for it to be years ago. Instead, sense kicked in and I realized exactly how I wanted to use this truck and made it as such. It’s a clean, fairly simple single cab truck that can haul loads in the uncut bed, and take me on off-road excursions wherever I want to go.
Aside from a few simple mods I have left, this truck is pretty much finished. Although a pair of twin turbochargers would look really nice under the hood, don’t you think?
Active Duty
Premudder Blazer
It’s been a struggle to finish this truck, as other projects keep getting in the way. About two years ago I got this truck back out of mothballs and starting fixing everything that had gone wrong during its prior life. A lot has gone on with this one recently as SMP Fabworks has been improving the rollcage, adding bumpstops and a sway bar, and mending the body in multiple places where it had been fatiguing. The truck should just about be finished and on its way to Moab by the time you read this.
Completed
Matilda the Giant Cherokee
Have you ever driven a truck with 47-inch tires down a major freeway at 75 mph? What about going sand duning with 47s? Until then, don’t give us your opinions of what this truck can and can’t do. It has amazed us every time we’ve gone out in it. You cannot help but stop and stare when this thing rolls by.
We built this giant ’70s Cherokee with a fairly simple leaf-spring suspension, a Chevy Dana 60 with 35-spline chromoly axles, and a common 14-Bolt axle in back. With 47s, I figured axleshafts and driveshafts would snap behind the powerful 401ci V-8. Nope. We’ve tried to murder this truck and it just keeps going. In fact, the only thing that has broken on it was the Dana 300 transfer case that failed in back of the Klune-V underdrive. With everything working correctly, this Jeep is pretty much done.
Active Duty
Almighty Dime
I never thought a 4x4 S-10 Blazer could look this cool. Freelancer Doug Mitchell’s Almighty Dime has come a long way since its 29-inch tires and two-tone red and silver paint. But with a flat black paint job on a custom hood and fiberglass fenders with Munkyfied bumpers and 33-inch tires, this little S-10 has been reborn!
We’re sorry to say that the IFS suspension is this SUV’s biggest downfall. Unfortunately the tires move towards the doors as the suspension compresses (resulting in some major rub issues), and there is some serious bumpsteer problems too, so our plans may have changed. We were originally thinking we’d outfit this truck with 4WD long-travel suspension, but now we’re wondering if a solid axle swap is the right way to go for practicality (we’d spend less money, it’d be easier to do, and we can make a solid-axle truck still go fast).
Active Duty
2011 Tow-Haul-Chase Super Duty
We recently acquired a 2011 Super Duty crew cab 4x4 to build for our needs. No doubt you’ve already seen a few stories on this truck, and hopefully you’re looking forward to more as we modify this workhorse. We’re not going to go the same radical route that we did with our 2003 Super Duty, and no modification we do will take away from its working ability as this one is staying true to its tow-haul-chase theme that we’ve labeled it with.
As far as comparisons between our ’03 and ‘11? It’s night and day! While I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for our old 6.0L truck, Ford’s current Super Duty is a dream machine with big power and comfort improvements over the previous generations. With 20K miles on the odometer, we have yet to see a single problem with ours.