Trump Card: Shane Kellogg’s Latest Super Stock Pulling Truck

Shane Kellogg has been a fixture on the pulling circuit for many years: He’s earned a state championship and six national championships in his famous Super Stock Dodge named Gotta Have It. Even at the young age of thirty-four, the Kenton, Ohio, farmer is considered a veteran in the diesel truck-pulling world. To say that Kellogg and Gotta Have It were extremely successful would be an understatement; he took home event wins on a regular basis and was a contender to pull the sled farther than anyone else on any given night. He regularly competes in the highly competitive Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League and the National Tractor Pulling Association series with his truck.

Even at the young age of thirty-four, the Kenton, Ohio, farmer is considered a veteran in the diesel truck-pulling world.

After winning the Ohio State Puller’s Association Championship in 2011, the NTPA Championship in 2010, 2012 and 2013, the PPL Championship for three consecutive years in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and while leading the points category in 2014, an offer came in to purchase the Gotta Have It chassis. Rather than being complacent and continuing with his existing truck, Kellogg chose to sell the chassis and build a new truck to challenge himself and his team to climb to the top and trump his competition once again. Thus the idea for TRUMP was born.

THE NEW RIG

After selling Gotta Have It, Kellogg turned to the crew at Sandridge Customs to begin the build on a new Super Stock pulling truck right away. Starting from scratch with a stack of metal tubing and plans to top the overwhelming success of the previous truck, the Sandridge team, led by Nate and Jacob Boes, went to work designing and fabricating Kellogg’s new truck from the ground up in mid-April 2014. In just three-and-a-half short months, TRUMP rolled out of the Bloomdale shop ready to tackle the dirt and drag the sled along for a ride. In September 2014, he collected his first win with TRUMP at an NTPA event and has gone on to record three more victories as of early June 2015.

The 2013 Ram 2500 body is a molded fiberglass set from GTS Fiberglass and Design in Troy, Missouri, that was sent over to Danny Taylor of Taylor’s Automotive Art and Design in Louisville, Kentucky, for a unique look. Kellogg told us he dropped off the body with the simple instructions to “Make it look good.” Then, with full creativity in design and color selection, Taylor went to work on the body, slathering it with the multitude of colors and the wild layout seen here. You’d be hard pressed to find a truck on the pulling circuit—or anywhere else for that matter—that stands out more than TRUMP. For a little more bling, he used a Lamborghini-style door hinge for the single door on the driver’s side of the body. The bed is capped with a soft tonneau cover to give the truck a finished look.

BUILDING THE CHASSIS

While Taylor was working his magic on the body, the team at Sandridge Customs was cutting, bending and TIG welding chromoly tubing to form the chassis. The truss work chassis design not only holds the powerful Haisley Machine-built Cummins engine firmly in place, it also secures the beefy Rockwell axles and driveline to get the power to the ground. The narrowed rear Rockwell SQHD axle is mounted to the chassis and features a 6.20 gear ratio with a TRB Machine billet differential. Up front, the Rockwell F-106 axle also uses a TRB differential with 6.20 gears. The front axle is mounted in the chassis with a set of fabricated billet aluminum Sandridge trailing arms and a total of six Penske shocks with two on the front side of the axle and four coil-over models on the rear side.

The Sandridge Customs team built a massive hook mount that is fully adjustable to give Kellogg the weight distribution he desires. They also integrated mounts and an internal frame structure to keep the fiberglass body rigid. The body tilts up from the front to allow Kellogg and his team easy access to the engine and chassis. Kellogg opted to finish the chassis with a great-looking, brushed, stainless steel powder coat finish.

TRUMP’s power comes from a reliable source: The Cummins engine is the very same engine that powered Gotta Have It!

Both the front- and rear-axle assemblies are stuffed with SCS Gearbox axles to put the power to the huge Real Racing Wheels wrapped with Dick Cepek Giant Puller 34X18.0-15 tires up front and Pit Bull Super Puller 34X18.00-15 tires in the rear. To prevent the wheels from spinning in the tires, Kellogg runs multiple rim screws to secure the two together under the low pressures run in competition. Power is sent to the front and rear axles through custom SCS Gearbox driveshafts with U-joint shields and drive shaft retention hoops to help prevent anything from flying out from under the truck if there is a failure. The painted driveshafts link to a SCS transfer case and reverser that link to the Cummins engine through an MRP four-disc clutch system, which allows Kellogg to tune it to the track conditions before each hook. The clutch is contained within a Probell Racing Products bell housing and actuated with a Howe hydraulic pedal system.

A hydraulic steering ram is used to help Kellogg keep TRUMP between the lines as he pilots it down the track. Independently actuated Wilwood disc brakes are used up front to help him maneuver the 7,500-pound truck in the pits and on the track while lining up to hook to the sled. The rear axle does not use brakes, and Kellogg does not touch the brakes during track runs.

THE LEGENDARY ENGINE

TRUMP’s power comes from a reliable source: The Cummins engine is the very same engine that powered Gotta Have It! The Haisley Machine SuperB Cummins engine features a factory 6.7L crank that was prepped by the pros at Callies Performance Products to withstand the rigors of Super Stock sled pulling. It swings a set of billet steel connecting rods—built to Haisley specifications—and Ross Racing pistons through the bores under a CNC-ported Hamilton Cams 12-valve cylinder head. A billet steel roller camshaft by Haisley actuates an SMT roller-rocker system to control the valves in the Hamilton head. To keep everything well lubricated, they rely on a dry-sump external oiling system with a Peterson Fluid Systems external oil pump mounted low on the driver side of the Cummins engine. ARP studs and fasteners are used throughout the engine to keep everything together.

Spent exhaust gasses are expelled through a Steed Speed manifold, into a spacer and then the turbine of a Columbus Diesel Supply Pro-Stock series turbo. From there the exhaust charge drives an additional pair of Columbus Diesel Pro-Stock turbos in a parallel twin configuration. Output from the twins is merged into a single stack that fires plumes of smoke through the hood of the truck.

Large volumes of air are drawn into the pair of Columbus twins through a pair of guillotine-style shut down valves before entering the two compressor housings. Once it is compressed in the first stage, the intake charge is channeled over to the input of the single Columbus turbo mounted to the exhaust manifold. To help regulate boost levels, a single Precision Turbo blow-off valve is used between stages. After another round of compression, the intake charge is routed through a Precision Turbo air-to-water intercooler before reaching the ZZ Custom Fabrication Haisley Machine intake manifold. The log-style manifold features individual runners that feed air into the cylinder head.

To keep up with all the air that the compound triple turbo system can make requires a lot of fuel volume. Kellogg and the team at Haisley Machine once again turned to Columbus Diesel Supply to handle the fuel side of the engine. The single mechanical Billet Sigma High Performance Pump from Columbus delivers plenty of fuel through custom-bent stainless steel high-pressure fuel lines to a set of six Columbus Diesel high flow fuel injectors. The engine combination makes around 3,000 horsepower to keep TRUMP at the front of the pack. To monitor the engine and chassis, Kellogg relies on a TS Performance Ipro data logger system and monitor. Kurtis Rieckly handled the electrical system wiring for the truck.

WHAT’S NEXT

Kellogg has been working on getting the new truck dialed in to consistently finish toward the front of the pack. With everything this truck has going for it—a stout engine and driveline, a well-built chassis, amazing attention to detail and a multi-time championship winning driver—it won’t be long before Kellogg adds another national championship to his résumé. DW