Dino Fuel Alternatives updated...
Dino Fuel Alternatives updated the look of Big Red by adding the Buckstop Baja bumper and matching it to the factory red. This item houses Hella foglights, Lightforce 240XGT driving lights, and a Warn winch-kind of like a Batmobile bumper. Below the bumper, the adjustable air ride suspension from Kelderman is visible in all of its adjustable splendor. A Firestone computerized unit controls the bags. These in turn adjust the length of the Bilstein 7100 series remote-reservoir shocks.
When Kelderman originally built this Dodge, it cracked necks on the show circuit for three or four years, starting in 2003. The big, red, Dodge laid low for a while, until Dino Fuel Alternatives of Denver, Colorado, found out it had been picked for SEMA's Making Green Cool Zone. The company asked if it could use Big Red to showcase Dino Fuel Alternatives.
In case you didn't know, Kelderman is heavily involved with alternative fuels. Several of its shop vehicles have been converted to biofuel. It just so happens that Jeff Kelderman's father, Gary Kelderman, helped pioneer the conversion of coal plants to run on switch grass-a green solution to fossil fuel consumption. For Kelderman, it was a no-brainer to hand off Big Red to Dino Fuel Alternatives and let the crew implement the Vegiram system using the company's heated toolbox and patented V3 flex-fuel module.
The solid red color of the truck needed a thematic paint scheme, so Josh Bourassa stepped up to the plate with his hauntingly prophetic vinyl wrap depicting grass encroaching a petroleum factory. It makes sense when you know it runs on biofuel, but the first-time response from pedestrians on the street to the fairly busy graphic scheme on this 15-foot-tall crew cab is nothing but shock and awe. After Dino Fuel Alternatives got hold of the rig, it was updated with a few other items besides the graphics and sent off to SEMA. It was there that Dino Fuel Alternatives owner Mike Magree and I linked up and discovered that all three of us (he, I, and the truck, that is) were from Colorado-or at least based there. So it was agreed that after we all recovered from the maniacal debauchery that is SEMA, we would get together and shoot the Dodge
When Mike couldn't hook up for the photo shoot before he went out of town, he offered to drop the truck off at my house and have Kelderman pick it up the following week. I was about to tell him I didn't have a garage when I realized the thing probably wouldn't fit anyway. So the next morning I awoke to find a big, bright-red, loudly graphical monster sitting across the street from my house. Apart from about two minutes of a rumbling motor and a pile of broken branches from the tree overhanging its parking space, the vehicle had made its arrival relatively unnoticed.
To ensure this rig has the...
To ensure this rig has the rolling stock to match the rest of its supreme chassis and body, 24-inch Diesel Vintage series rims are wrapped by 37-inch Toyo Open Country tires.
Intimidated at the thought of navigating such a behemoth around the city, I let the truck sit out there for a day or two. The keys sat on the coffee table as well, until late one Thursday night when I had settled in for an episode of Law and Order. A friend called saying he wanted to meet up. Immediately, the keys piped up. "What are you, some kind of softy?" they said. Fifteen minutes later I was groomed and dressed and stepping up into the cabin of the Dodge-my first time behind the wheel of a monster truck-like a kid stealing his parents' car. I fired up the oil-burner and depressed the clutch. That's right, this thing is a stick and it was sick. I used to work in a rail yard in college and we had to drive semis around the lot, so the Dodge's H-pattern presented no drama. As I engaged First gear, the first thing I noticed was the immediate availability of torque. It seemed to come on like a Pamplonan bull from around 500 rpm. Oh yeah, I remembered, this is a diesel, and it has power that arrives down low in the rpm range then drops off right when you think the party is getting started. Like a strip club that closes at 9:30.
Nonetheless, the instant availability of power seemed like it could be quite useful, even addictive. I can definitely see it coming in handy when it comes to getting boats or Jet Skis out of the lake while everybody's staring at you. As I'm feeling my way around this new world, I notice that oncoming traffic on my neighborhood streets is getting out of the way as soon as they see me.