You're probably wondering why we aren't showing you the typical dash shot with 100 lightup switches, oversize gauges, and a massive GPS system. Well, this truck is not 100-percent complete, and it may stay that way because Ryan may have it up for sale soon enough, so save your pennies and give him a call. For now, you can see the cab section of the chassis, which consists of 2-inch 4130 chrome-moly tube with all seams TIG-welded all around. The dash is made of aluminum, but Dirt-Tech left plenty of room to cut out for a race shifter, gauges, GPS, radio, and more. The seats are from PRP with Crow padded five-point harnesses, and the steering wheel comes from MOMO with a quick-release mount. Located above the cab is a Baja Designs five-light bar system running 8-inch HID lights. Ryan will have zero problems running at night with this system powered on.
Take a good look at the craftsmanship of the rear axlehousing. It's something we would love to have on our wall (not to mention underneath any of our projects). The entire axlehousing is manufactured at Dirt-Tech, once again being laser-cut and CNC-bent in house, and it features 40-spline axles, full-floating Desert Specialties hubs, 13-inch Wilwood rotors, and Wilwood calipers. You can run several different combinations of gears and lockers in this rearend, but Ryan chose to run a full spool to keep everything locked 100 percent of the time. The rearend is kept in control with a 35-spline, 1.25-inch sway-bar system. The wheelbase has been shortened to 130 inches, and the track with is 90 inches.
On top of the rear end is a Racer X 45-gallon fuel cell custom-mounted between a pair of fullsize spare tires. Ryan was able to get his hands on some APP forged wheels before the company unfortunately stopped making them. Wrapped around them is a set of the brand-new BFGoodrich T/AKM2 mud-terrain tires. The new rubber allows Ryan enough traction to keep all that wheel travel controlled when on the ground. Glassworks Unlimited was chosen to wrap the truck's new chassis in fiberglass, complementing the look and finish Ryan was looking for.
So why did we title this article "Knack Knack?" Well, the definition of knack is a readiness in performance, an aptitude or talent for doing something. Although normally these days when people hear someone yell "knack knack" they look overhead and expect to see a motorcycle soaring, we felt this word better describes the amount of talent put into Ryan's prerunner. We gave it a double knack for good measure.