Diesel Tech Magazine — September 2017

dieseltechmag.com

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JOINING FORCES
If you’re wondering what they do to ensure that the newly
joined frame maintains the proper amount of structural integrity,
Riley wastes no time in explaining. “There’s quite a bit of engineer-
ing that goes into designing a frame for each specific truck,” he
says. “Not only do we design it so it fits aesthetically but it has to
exceed everything that the factory frame can do from the dealer-
ship. The parts that we’re building are stronger than the factory
frame.” Both he and Brian went to school for mechanical engineer-
ing, so they have years of experience in designing and building
these trucks. They take a look at the payload capacity of the truck
in its factory state, from the gross vehicle weight to the payload
to the tongue weight. They take all of that into consideration and
design a kit specific to each truck that includes gussets, internal
sleeves, and internal structures. As Riley explains, “Nobody buys
and builds a 6-door truck to drive it around town. They do it to
haul people on camping trips, boat outings, work trips, whatever it
may be. The trucks we build are designed to work.”
There’s a lot of work that goes into just the frame and getting
and designing it to where it’s structurally sound. Custom body
mounts, new cross members, the works. He says that they really
like to work on GM vehicles, because their fully boxed frame allows

them to replicate that boxed structure on the section they add,

which only adds to the frame’s stability.

Of course, there are plenty of other adjustments that must be

made when adding four feet to a truck’s length. One of the biggest

ones is the driveshaft. They build a two-piece driveshaft and a

custom cross member that goes in place to hold a carrier bearing.

Riley says, “We have the driveline built to exceed anything the

truck will ever see, but we want to make sure that because it is that

length that we don’t compromise the drivability of it with having a

weak driveshaft.” Other things that must be lengthened: the wiring

harness for the fuel tank, the bed, and the rear lights; a computer

module mounted by the spare tire; backup camera; fuel lines;

brake lines; emergency brake lines; exhaust; and DPF systems.

FINISHING TOUCHES

With the exterior stretching complete, it’s now time to focus on

the interior. The biggest consideration there is deciding what kind

of seat goes into the newly created second row. The standard of-

fering is just a duplicate of whatever is already in place for the rear

seat, but Riley says that around 80 percent of their customers end

up going with what he calls a 20-40-20 captain chair setup: bucket

seats with a flip-up center console. This gives the center row pas-