GOOD THINGS COME

The Ultimate Long Range Tow Rig

With an open SEMA spot, a 2012 F-350 Super Duty, and a couple of weeks, this ultimate long-range tow rig show truck was born. This is James Patience’s truck, which he uses to tow a wide variety of cargo for himself, his employer, and for charity. It also happens to be so well set up that it often upstages the vehicles it tows.

James Patience

Patience is the service/FAB manager at Titan Tanks in Ammon, Idaho. He’s also a passionate home mechanic and builder of custom trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles. Over the past 20+ years, he’s created dozens of custom trucks and more than 60 custom bikes.

Impressively, Patience pulled off this impressive build in a very short two weeks. Titan Tanks helped free up his schedule and gave him the garage space to build the truck. He attributes the success of the build, to his awesome employer, his dependable sponsors, and his ability to get the job done on little to no sleep.

SEMA Truck

Titan Tanks had a SEMA spot open up last minute, as the builder slotted for that spot wasn’t going to have a completed truck in time for the show. Patience had a nice 2012 Ford F-350, which he used for hauling duties at Titan and at home, which was prime for a refresh. It only made sense to make the shop tow rig into an even better hauler and shiny show truck to fill the empty SEMA spot.

Patience and Titan Tanks do a few custom builds a year and have some solid industry connections. Repeat sponsors know their word is gold, and they are always ready to help at a moment’s notice. Even with industry cred and a strong portfolio it was impressive for this build’s sponsors to come through with such an insane deadline, especially as many of them had their own SEMA projects to button up.

The truck was displayed front and center on the bridge in front of the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas. This spot gets lots of traffic and is reserved for some of the top builds at the event, a high honor with all the incredible vehicles at the show.

Tow Rig

Patience uses this rig primarily to haul Titan Tanks many event vehicles around the country. Since SEMA, that has been the Rockstar Garage Diesel Colorado ZR2, Patience’s wife’s YJ rock crawler, and a Titan co-worker’s built H3. The truck is also sometimes used to haul Titan fuel tanks to dealers. All of this adds up to a ton of road time behind the wheel for Patience, and he is stoked to spend so much time with this awesome custom truck.

Charity Hauler

Besides all the duties this rig performs at Titan Tanks, Patience also uses it to give back to a variety of charities. In addition to working as service manager at Titan, he also builds custom motorcycles, mostly high-end Harley Davidsons and Indians. This has lead him to giving his time to organizations like Bikers Against Bullies USA, Youth and Family Services, and Big Brothers-Big Sisters.

This truck is often used to tow a 40-foot enclosed trailer to charity events for Bikers Against Bullies USA. Patience loads the trailer up with custom motorcycles and visits schools, concerts, and charity events. They use the motorcycles as eye candy to get people’s attention and then teach people how to avoid being bullied, and how to react if it does happen.

Nothing is too pretty to use.
—James Patience

This tow rig, along with Patience’s enclosed trailer, is also used as a chase rig for the annual Bikers Against Bullies/Maverick Publishing Ride to Sturgis. The ride for charity starts in a different state each year and ends a week later at the beginning of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. To raise money for charity, around 100 custom motorcycles and a few chase trucks make this trip each year. Last year, the ride generated $194,000, and the goal this year is to make a cool quarter million.

The Build

The focus of this build was to look good while doing work—after all, this is a work truck first and foremost. This 2012 Ford F-350 6.7L V8 diesel crew cab short bed 4×4 not only looks great, but can regularly be spotted towing a 20,000-pound load or riding on three wheels off-road alongside the rigs it tows.

Fuel

Since this is a Titan Tanks show truck and long-distance heavy vehicle/trailer hauler, it of course needed some serious fuel storage solutions. The truck came with a stock 26-gallon tank, which was swapped out with a 50-gallon unit from Titan. A 50-gallon Travel Trekker tank was installed in the truck bed and a 30-gallon spare tire tank was also added. That’s a whopping 130 gallons of fuel capacity on this Super Duty!

Lifted

The truck sports an 8-inch four-link lift from BDS. It features Fox 2.0 shocks, BDS rear leaf springs and a Firestone airbag kit with wireless controller. At the touch of a button on the Firestone Ride Rite remote, Patience can adjust the airbag pressure on the go, quickly and effortlessly adjusting for load, wind and road conditions. That substantial lift allowed Patience to fit 24-inch Vision Rocker Wheels, which were color-matched to the truck. Those slick wheels are wrapped in aggressive 38-inch Nitto Trail Grappler tires.

Performance

To make this Super Duty perform off road and while towing heavy loads you’ll find an H&S tuner, Bully Dog cold-air intake, and an Airdog fuel pump system under the hood. Dual Yellow Top Optima batteries handle the increased electrical needs of the truck while a 4-inch black ceramic Magnaflow exhaust keeps the engine breathing easy and sounding great. G2 4.56 gears and finned diff covers top off the performance upgrades on this tow rig.

Exterior

The first thing you’ll notice at first glance is the massive Rock Tamers mud flaps and Gen-Y 12-inch drop torsion hitch. Patience sees the Gen-Y hitch as a must for any lifted truck bumper towing big heavy loads. It’s incredibly strong, has a built-in load scale, and an integrated torsion system, which keeps those big loads from whipping around the truck. This Super Duty is set up to do work!

Exterior metal includes RBP side steps and Fusion front and rear bumpers. An ARE Z Series shell helps define the silhouette of this big truck, and offers protected and locked gear storage. Buckwacker Extenda-Flare fender flares make sure the massive wheel and tire combo is contained under the truck.

Bulldog LED lighting can be found throughout the build, with four 6-inch bars in the front bumper, two 6-inch bars in the rear bumper and a 40-inch bar behind the RBP grille insert. Spyder Auto headlights and taillights finish off the lighting package.

Handy for both work tasks and off-road adventures, a Rugged Ridge 9K winch is installed in the front bumper. It’s finished off with synthetic line and a Factor 55 ProLink thimble for safe, consistent closed-system winching.

Finishing Touches

Because Patience spends so much time in his truck, it was important to refresh the interior with an upgrade package. Roadwire burgundy and black two-tone leather covers all the interior seating and center console. A full Pioneer DVD entertainment/audio system keeps the tunes rocking and videos playing on those long road trips through the headrest-mounted TVs.

To finish off the entire build Patience just had to add a little bit of fun in the form of Kleinn train horns. Patience says he had to do it “because all the cool kids are doing it!”

Work, Love & Compassion

This is a work truck through and through, and every once in a while gets cleaned up for display at events. Patience and Titan have always approached their builds with a somewhat conservative view, as they’re built to be used to their full potential. While they look good doing work, you won’t find any purple powdercoated axles on a Titan build.

James Patience’s F-350 build not only works hard and looks good—it also does great things for quality causes along the way. This truck brings a new high standard to the SEMA build concept, and is sure to see a lot more work and do a lot more good in its working lifetime.

2012 Ford F-350 super duty

Wheels & Tires: Vision 24×12 Rocker Wheels (Color Matched to Truck), Nitto Trail Grapplers 38×13.50×24
Suspension: BDS 8-inch four link lift kit, Fox 2.0 coilover shocks, BDS Springs, Firestone Airbag kit w/wireless controlle
Under The Hood: H&S tuner, Bully Dog cold-air intake, dual Yellow Top Optima batteries, Airdog II 4g fuel pump system
Exterior: Fusion front & rear bumpers, RBP side steps, ARE Z Series shell, BedRug bedliner, Bulldog LED lights (40” bar behind grille, four 6” in front bumper, two 6” in rear bumper), Gen-Y 12” drop torsion hitch, RBP grille insert, Spyder Auto headlights & taillights, Bushwacker Extenda-Flare fender flares, Rock Tamers mud flaps, Rugged Ridge 9K winch w/synthetic line & Factor 55 ProLink
Under The Truck: Fox 2.0 Steering Stabilizers, Titan Tanks fuel tanks (50-gallon midship, 50-gallon Travel Trekker & 30-gallon spare tire tank), Magnaflow 4-inch black ceramic exhaust, Kleinn train horns, G2 4.56 gears & finned diff covers
Interior: Roadwire red leather seats, Pioneer DVD entertainment/audio system w/headrest TVs, Lowrance Elite 7” GPS