Building Big: Jeff Dyer’s Record-Time Ram 2500 Build

A RAM 2500 6.7L BUILT IN RECORD TIME

Building badass diesel trucks is nothing new for Jeff Dyer. He’s been doing it for over 15 years in his home garage. In the last six years alone, he’s built twelve diesel Ram trucks. While it’s just a passion on the side for Dyer, he’s become quite skilled at building impressive trucks that look and run great.

Diesel Passion

Dyer works full time in sales for Fox Racing on the apparel side of things. He got the diesel bug as an on-road sales rep for the company many years ago. He found that he could drive his diesel work trucks all across the country, putting 80,000+ miles on them every two years, and could still sell them for a reasonable value. Aside from the great resale, the impressive fuel economy was a huge benefit to his nomadic sales rep life.

Those early trucks were mild builds, running 35s and 4-inch lifts, but Dyer has stepped up his build game exponentially within recent years. He’s developed a great relationship with Ram and orders two new trucks each June as soon as the order window opens for the next model year’s trucks. He builds “one to show and one to tow” every year, with the tow rig being a dually.

2017 SEMA Truck

This beautiful black 2018 Ram 2500 Laramie with a 6.7L Cummins was Dyer’s build for the 2017 SEMA Show. He managed to build this beast, in his garage, in four short weeks. The SEMA crunch was serious this time—Dyer usually gets his trucks in late July, but he didn’t get this one in his hands until the third week of September. With a week of transport time from his home in Massachusetts out to Vegas, and SEMA being at the end of October, time was tight!

For this build, Dyer worked closely with Steve McGaughy of McGaughy’s Suspension. The truck was displayed in the McGaughy’s SEMA booth and featured the company’s 12-inch lift kit for the HD Ram. Dyer’s truck was the first to have this new lift kit, which was designed and tested to the highest standards. The drivability of the truck is of the utmost importance to both Mcgaughty and Dyer, and this kit accomplishes its smooth ride and factory-like fitment by keeping as many of the OEM specifications—like driveline, brake cables, and so on—as possible.

SEMA Crunch

Since so much time and energy was put into the McGaughy’s suspension to get this kit just right, it arrived to Dyer at the very last minute. It was then shipped off to Prismatic Powder Coating, which was the last major obstacle to making the SEMA deadline. Dyer picked up the powdercoated suspension parts less than a week before he needed to be on the road headed to Vegas.

Dyer says, “No matter how hard you plan, it’s always something, mostly small, but just enough to ball things up.” Building top-quality show trucks on such a tight timeline, and on a just-released new vehicle, is always a serious challenge. Powdercoating was the big holdup on this build, but Dyer managed to get the truck all put together and make the show just in time.

Lifted

The 12-inch McGaughy’s lift kit consists of a four-link setup and coilover conversion with the Fox Shocks used throughout. The front end has 2.5-inch internal bypass piggyback coilover shocks and 2.5-inch piggyback triple-bypass secondary shocks. In the rear, it uses 2.0-inch piggyback double-bypass shocks.

The McGaughy’s lift allowed Dyer to fit 40×14.5 Nitto Trail Grappler tires. That big Nitto rubber is wrapped around huge 24×14 American Force Pursuit TS Wheels. To stop the huge rolling mass, EBC pads and rotors were fitted and hooked up using Russel stainless brake lines.

Custom & Accessorized

In order to help passengers get up into this lifted Ram, n-Fab side steps were installed. Inside you’ll find a full custom Road Wire leather covering the seats and door card inserts. You’ll also find an Edge CTS2 monitor, which controls the Edge Programming Tuner installed under the hood.

A clean, low-profile M-Racks roof rack runs the entire length of the roof, including atop the ARE truck bed topper. You’d need a tall ladder to access anything you tried to haul up there though! The truck bed is lined with a Bedrug, and is where you’d likely find any gear being hauled by this truck.

This Ram will also light up the night, as it features 18 different exterior Rigid Industries LED lights. Most of the lights you’ll find on the roof rack and in the stainless steel Fusion bumpers. The headlights and taillights have also been fully upgraded and customized by Diode Dynamics and Retro Shop custom headlights.

It’s the little things that help bring a build like this together, and Dyer didn’t overlook anything. PPE diff covers protect the front and rear diffs. The big Cummins breathes easy with an S&B intake. The Fusion bumpers are sporting security-locked Royal Hook shackles. A Gen-Y 30K torsion hitch lets you know this truck is ready to do work. You’ll also seriously hear this rig coming if Dyer decides to hit the horn, as he has installed a massive Horn Blasters Katrina airhorn system.

For The Love

One thing Dyer loves about his lifted trucks is getting to drive his kids, 5 and 8 years old, around in them. After SEMA, he was able to drive the kids around town and to school a few times in the Ram before the Massachusetts weather turned on him. None of Dyer’s builds go anywhere near the salted winter roads in Massachusetts. He keeps them locked away in his garage during the winter months.

Dyer’s diesel truck builds only get limited mileage on them before moving on to new homes. His family vehicle is a Mercedes GL450, but his latest vehicle addition is the exact opposite of a lifted diesel truck, a Mini Cooper he uses as his fun around-town car. These two daily drivers help keep the miles low and the winter road grime off the truck builds.

In the end, Jeff Dyer only owned this Ram for a total of about three months. He sold it to a dealer in Texas soon after SEMA, who quickly turned it around to a happy customer. The new buyer actually traded in a Dodge Hellcat for this Ram, and he uses the new truck as his new daily driver. Keep an eye out for it on the roads around Houston.

2018 Ram 2500 Laramie 6.7L

Suspension: 12” McGaughy’s 4 Link, McGaughy’s coilover conversion, Fox 2.5” internal bypass piggyback shocks, Fox 2.5” piggyback triple-bypass secondary shocks, Fox 2.0” piggyback double-bypass rear shocks
Wheels: American Force Pursuit TS Wheels, 24×14
Tires: Nitto Trail Grappler, 40×15.5R24
Brakes: EBC pads and rotors, Russel stainless brake lines
Lighting: Rigid Industries LED lights (Bumpers: 2×6” E Series, 2×4” E series, 2x Duallys, 2×6” SR, 14” SR; Roof Rack: Eight 4” SR, 50” RDS); Diode Dynamics HID headlights, back-up LED, DRL boards, Retro Shop custom headlights (paint/colored LED boards)
Off-Road Accessories: PPE diff covers (front & rear), stainless steel Fusion bumpers (front & rear), Royal Hook shackles
Other Accessories: n-Fab side steps, M-Racks roof rack, Gen-Y 30K torsion hitch, Bedrug, ARE Topper, Edge Programming Tuner w/CTS2 monitor, S&B intake, MBRP exhaust, RoadWire custom interior, Seamless Customs interior install & door treatments, Horn Blasters Katrina airhorns, RideController bluetooth controller, 3D interior liners, M2 horn plate, Prismatic powdercoating

Sources

ARE
866.658.8376
4ARE.com

American Force Wheels
888.981.1344
AmericanForceWheels.com

BedRug
800.462.8435
BedRug.com

Diode Dynamics
314.205.3033
DiodeDynamics.com

EBC Brakes
702.826.2400
EBCBrakes.com

Edge Products
888.360.3343
EdgeProducts.com

Fusion Bumpers
888.779.3377
FusionBumpers.com

Gen-Y Hitch
574.218.6363
GenYHitch.com

Horn Blasters
877.209.8179
HornBlasters.com

MBRP Exhaust
888.636.7223
MBRP.com

McGaughy’s Suspension
559.226.8196
McGaughys.com

N-FAB Steps
866.806.6322
N-Fab.com

Nitto Tire
888.529.8200
NittoTire.com

PPE Diesel
714.985.4825
PPEDiesel.com

Prismatic Powders
866.774.7628
PrismaticPowders.com

Ride Controller
800.772.6613
RideController.com

Rigid Industries Lighting
855.760.5337
RigidIndustries.com

Roadwire Interiors
877.762.3947
RoadWire.com

Royal Hooks
916.549.4007
RoyalHooks.com

Russell Performance
310.781.2222
RussellPerformance.com

S&B Filters
800.358.2639
SBFilters.com

Seamless Custom Interiors & Repair
774.289.5344
SeamlessCustom.com