2009 Ultimate Adventure 2002 Ford F250 Super Duty - The Ultimate Ranch Truck

The deadline to complete the Ultimate Ranch Truck is coming up faster than an interstate mile marker at a 110 mph! Our goal is to have the truck built and trail-tested a few weeks before the Ultimate Adventure. James and Stephan Watson at Offroad Design in Carbondale, Colorado, have their crew of topnotch fabricators cutting, welding, grinding, and wrenching around the clock. We are looking forward to leisurely cruising the Ultimate Ranch Truck across America for the start of UA!

If you are reading about the Ultimate Adventure and our ranch truck for the first time, then here's the skinny. We spend a week challenging our vehicles and ourselves on the toughest trails we can find around the country. Our procession of UA rigs travels from trail to trail by highway. All repairs must be made on the spot. There's no trailering or towing any UA rig. The Ultimate Adventure also requires many nights roughing it the wild, and that means plenty of meals cooked by oily and smoking engine blocks. This year we plan on completing nine trails in seven days and driving thousands of miles through three states-we've nicknamed it Rick Pw's Death March.

1. Our Ultimate Ranch Truck is big, and we're taking bets on just how much it will weigh when it's done. The truck's cumbersome weight and the power and torque output of the Powerstroke 7.3L turbo diesel forced us to go big! Dynatrac's Pro Series 80 was the perfect match for the truck. It will definitely stand up to the extreme trail conditions and the engine's 545 lb-ft of torque.

1. Our Ultimate Ranch Truck is big, and we're taking bets on just how much it will weigh w

Each year the staff builds the coolest and toughest vehicle we can for Ultimate Adventure. This year we are turning our once-abandoned '02 Ford Super Duty fitted with a 7.3L turbo diesel into a rockcrawling adventure rig that's able to fix anything from axles to barbed wire fences. The Super Duty has been around the block a time or two. It was well used and definitely needed rebuilding. To date, the truck has had its rocker panels boatsided, the doors have been cut down to match, the old suspension has been stripped off the frame, a new rollcage has been welded in place, and the cab has been unitized to the frame. The Ford Super 60 front axle has been replaced with a Dynatrac Pro-Series 80.

We've overcome major hurdles and are at a turning point in the build. All the math and suspension geometry has been completed, and the major fabrication work is well on its way to being finished too. There's still a number of components to build, bolt on, and wire for power, but the worst is behind us. If we've blown our budget and lost sight of our aspirations of building an economical truck, then oh well. We'll just have to live with this soon-to-be amazing adventure rig.