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Actually when the suspension is working correctly the trucks don’t beat your body up at all. The shocks and suspension on the off-road racing trucks are designed for that type of work. The shocks we use are large 4” Dirt Logic shocks from Fabtech and were built for the race truck in mind. The internal parts of the shocks are adjustable so they can be tuned to match the truck and make the ride very comfortable. Our shortest race is about 250 miles so the suspension has to work well.

The lights we use on the race trucks are the new style KC Pod Carbon Fiber HID light. Unlike the old Halogen style bulbs these use High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs that use much less power. The old style Halogen lights would take more then double the operational power as the new HID style lights. The Halogen bulbs were like a normal light bulb with a filament that burns and that’s what makes the light. The HID light actually is an arc that strikes between 2 metal elements. The light is much brighter and casts farther than the old style Halogen lights. In our race truck we can run 10 of these new style lights and we use a stock Ford alternator and a single RedTop OPTIMA battery in the system with no problem running all night long.

All of our races are long course desert races where we can be up to 50 miles away from the nearest pit and crew member. In all of our race trucks we have 110 watt Kenwood race radios that we have connected into the intercom system to our helmets. The intercom lets the driver and passenger talk over the outside sounds of the engine and all that stuff easily. Then by pressing a button on the console it connects the microphone in the helmet from the intercom system to the radio to broadcast out. Then our chase and pit crews have radios that are tuned to the same frequency. The radios are not like a CB radio you would see in a semi truck; they are FM frequency units. That type of radio can broadcast for up to 30 or more miles with a clear connection to the other radios. However, mountains and other objects between the two radios can cut down the range.

All race organizations have very specific rules about how roll cages and safety equipment must be used and built. All of our trucks are Ford trucks and race in the stock production class so we have to follow the rules for that class of truck. Most of the roll cages are built out of what we call Chromolly or 4130 steel. This is a special alloy steel that has high carbon content in it and is very strong, much stronger then normal carbon steel that you would see in other metal tubing. Every day things like chairs and tables are normally made out of normal 1018 or 1020 mild steel which doesn’t have the strength of the 4130 material. Due to the abuse and crashes that our trucks endure we use 2” OD round tubing with a wall thickness of .125 (1/8 inch) for the main cage structures. These tubes are bent to shape in the cab and fit together by notching them to match the other tubes. We then TIG weld the entire cage structure together and attach it to the stock truck frame. You should be a qualified fabricator and welder to try to build you own roll cages, so please don’t attempt to do this without qualified help. The roll cage is the thing that keeps you alive when you crash so don’t take any chances on that.