In every region of our great country, farmers and ranchers rely heavily on pickup trucks to get work done. From hauling feed to the stables to recovering a stuck tractor from the neighbor's field, ranch trucks do it all. Rebecca Boardman of Twentynine Palms, California, knows this routine well. She's the proud owner of a real-world working ranch, the Rockin B Ranch to be specific, and this custom '06 Dodge Ram dualie serves both as her daily driver and ranch workhorse.
Editor's note: Some of you might recall OFF-ROAD's project vehicle, Great White, that was featured in the Sept., Oct., and Nov. '06 issues, or perhaps our more recent project, Big Red, which was shown in the Dec. '06 issue. Both of these trucks were built by the late Greg Boardman of Twentynine Palms, California. The trucks were designed to handle a serious pounding in the dirt while remaining comfy enough for everyday use. Unfortunately, the off-road community lost Greg in a tragic car accident in September of 2006. Shortly before the crash, Greg built the Ultimate Ranch Truck for his wife Rebecca. While we all mourn the loss of a prolific truck builder and good friend, the opportunity came to showcase his final project, and needless to say, we were in.
The rig began life as a simple 1-ton dualie, bought new at the end of 2005. From there, Greg added everything he could find to assist with life on the ranch. First, the stock bed was removed in favor of a super-lightweight flatbed by Sierra Nevada Aluminum Flatbeds. This unique-looking bed increased Rebecca's ability to haul supplies and equipment while on the go. It also made hooking up her gooseneck trailer a much simpler task. Next, the Ram's front fascia was upgraded with a Classic front winch bumper from Buckstop Truckware. This gave Greg a place to mount a Ramsey winch and Baja Designs Fuego HID lights. From there, Greg went even further, adding Kore's Chase-series suspension system, Weld Andros wheels, and Toyo M134 truck tires. With the added height afforded by the Kore suspension, Rebecca had to have a set of AMP Research steps.
Happy with the first batch of mods, Greg shifted his focus to power upgrades. Initially, the idea was to simply free up a little extra power with a freer-flowing intake and exhaust system. But as we all know, you can never get enough torque, especially when pulling 6 horses and a bunch of gear to the mountains. So, Greg added an Edge Performance Juice module with an A2 monitor/controller. This gave Rebecca's Ram plenty of oomph for heavy hauling while providing an economy setting for routine daily-driving scenarios.