Rob Graft owns Nemesis Industries, a company that makes Jeep products. Hauling a 53-foot show trailer around the country from his base in Elbert, Colorado, can involve thousands of miles, so he took great care when building this '12 Dodge 5500.

Kelly Fromm is a man with a big heart. He was in the Army for 16 years before leaving for medical reasons. But his love for his fellow soldiers has never faded. When Kelly built a Camaro (Veteran1) to honor the sacrifice of those who serve our country, he took it all around America on a tour that would rival some rock bands, covering more than 3,500 miles.

"This truck was built in my driveway," John James told us as he showed off his '05 Kodiak 4500. John is a tow truck driver for the Auto Club and the CHP, working the graveyard shift in California. He works hard, and he plays hard. Maybe he plays a little harder than he works. We've seen YouTube videos of John hammering his truck at the dunes, sled pulls, and the track…he never seems to slow down.

The food truck revolution has exploded in many cities in this country. Stories of gourmet chefs adapting an interesting concept (lobster grilled cheese anyone?) and taking it out on the road to adoring crowds are legendary. The use of Twitter to alert the masses about their whereabouts and Facebook pages devoted to food truck spottings feed the frenzy.

Blending work with play has always been a fascinating idea, and if you're a regular reader of Work Truck Review, you know our readers are good at it. While trucks may be the hard-working tools we use to earn a living, they also brighten our day with plush, comfortable cockpits and sweet-sounding stereo, entertaining us on our way to work in the morning and draining away some of the stress after a long, hard day. Cosmetic upgrades add to the look and instill pride of ownership while functional upgrades increase our ability to get the job done.

When you bring a project vehicle to Tom Stark at Precision Designs Fabrication in Henderson, Colorado, you know the crew will tackle it head-on and come up with some pretty brilliant ideas. So when Roger and Rhonda Brown said they wanted a hot-rodded '44 Mack fire truck, there was no doubt which direction the project was headed.

More than any other segment of the market, pickup trucks have improved drastically over the years. Originally designed with only function in mind, pickups were hard-riding, ill-handling vehicles that were as drafty as they were devoid of creature comforts.

Tony Sunday drives this '07 Ford F-550 service body truck every day in Beaumont, Texas, as he works for Deep South Crane & Rigging. When you work hard for a living, you come to appreciate a good truck.

Ford unveiled the Ford Atlas Concept at the Detroit Auto Show to showcase the design, capability, fuel efficiency, and smart technologies the company says will define future pickup trucks. While this concept is an F-150, we would expect the HD trucks might be on the same path.

It’s common for railroads to paint some of their locomotives in heritage colors as historical tributes to former railroads. Railroads also use work trucks ranging from pickups to heavy-duty specialized vehicles that have the ability to ride on the rails. Many of the high-rail pickups are used for service-related maintenance and most seem to be ordinary white or a plain color.

The price of owning a diesel-powered truck is on the rise. With high fuel prices and dealership mechanic rates running more than $100 an hour, its high time we started looking for the knowledgeable guy who runs his own shop and doesnt try to gouge his customers to make a quick waterfall of cashbut would rather establish a relationship with his customers for long-term, repeat business.

In 1978, Ford built an extended-cab F-250 concept truck inspired by its big rigs called the Little Louie. The extended cab remains on this custom version we’ve designed, but (unlike the original) the mini sleeper configuration is absent. The dark red side stripe shown here was white on the concept truck. The hood and bedcover are black, and the roof lights, air horns, antennas, and twin exhaust stacks remain true to the concept. The blacked-out front grille is a dark gray here and is altered to reflect what Ford was doing with its COE trucks, so the grille is split, allowing for the name to be placed in the center. The headlight bezels are also black (on the concept version they were chrome), and the rear window has black louvers.

A warehouse distributor is a company you probably dont even know existsyet a good one can have a big effect on your happiness when you visit the local truck shop.

Four days after buying this 08 Dodge 2500, Tanner Brown was tearing into it and installing a lift kit. Working on the truck with his brother Brandon, he started with a 6-inch lift kit and a set of 18-inch wheels with 37-inch tires. That got plenty of attention in and around Auburn, Illinois.

When Jason Arce sets out to build something, you can rest assured its going to be nice. As the club captain of Royal Customs, he wouldnt have it any other way. Jason is a sales manager at ATS Diesel Performance in Arvada, Colorado, which means the bar is set pretty high. When the crew at ATS knows youre building a show truck, they dont want to hear about anything other than how much power its going to put out.

When the MBRP Performance Exhuast crew builds a truck at The Garage, you can bet it includes a collection of the finest parts money can buy. But parts alone arent the only way to build an awesome truck. Its the combination of parts and the way they are put together that often sets a vehicle apart from the crowd. When Justin Clarke wanted to build his 12 Ford F-250 Lariat, he smartly took it to The Garage.

When Mark Hanson of Road Armor decided to build up this 12 Ford F-350, he knew from the start it would have to be a practical build since he wanted to continue using the truck as it was intended to be used. Mark says, We wanted to build a truck that had a very clean appearance with the utilitarian functions of a ranch truck.

Dan Adams is not the kind of guy who just wants to have a big HD truck to be cool. He’s had plenty of sports cars for that. Dan is the kind of guy who needs an HD truck to get his job done.

When Tobias Grimsley was planning his new business, Vanilla Elephant, he made a critical decision about where he would locate his office. The decision? Nowhere…and everywhere. This is his office.

When Jim Hall decided to build a truck for motoring down the highways of Wisconsin, he knew he wanted it to be tough, but comfortable. The Ford King Ranch seemed to cover these two opposable goals rather nicely. But Jim, the owner of a company that makes taps (as in threads) in Hartland, Wisconsin, isn’t prone to accepting common or ordinary in anything he does.

There isn’t a racer in history that has crossed the finish line without the help of a solid support team. The adage “There is no ‘I’ in team” couldn’t be truer when it comes to the sport of desert racing. Covering more than 1,000 miles of grueling desert at 100 mph is more than any one person, or truck, can do alone. While some of the Average Joe teams can’t afford expensive chase trucks, the big boys rely on not one, but several stationed around the course to help get their driver to the checkered flag before the next guy.

When Joey Gonzales of San Antonio, Texas, was deciding what the next Maximum Altitude Motorsports shop truck would be, he had a few requirements. Since the rig would frequently be used to transport customer vehicles, it had to be a dualie and it had to have the power that only diesel can offer. It had to have enough room for the guys to be able to fit comfortably in it during the workweek as well as Joey’s family on the weekends. Joey decided that a Cummins-powered 4x4 Dodge Ram Mega Cab dualie was the perfect truck for the numerous jobs it would eventually face.

Andrew Lowe of Kingwood, Texas, has been around the truck world for a long time. He built an ’03 Ram 1500 that was a cover truck, and he needed something to tow it to out-of-state shows. This ’06 Dodge Ram 2500 filled the bill nicely. A little tinkering was in order, so Andrew had the tow pig lifted a bit and a few custom pieces added.

Remy Kreft lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, and he likes off-roading and camping in the mountains. Plus, he works in the Canadian north in the oil patches—and that requires a lot of driving on backroads. It just seemed natural that Remy would want a lifted truck to handle the workweek and the weekend of fun towing toys and a camper to the lake. But he also wanted to look good doing it.

It just seems unlikely that you will find a bigger fan of the Kentucky Wildcats than Jennifer Scott. This Lexington, Kentucky, resident says she loves the paw print logo and she loves big trucks. What better way to show off Wildcat pride than with her own rolling booster club?