We love MotorTrend's Dirt Every Day TV show. It all began with Rick Péwé and David Freiburger's annual tradition of buying a used Jeep somewhere in the country, fixing it up onsite, and trying to drive it home to California while avoiding paved roads. Their yearly trips spawned the Roadkill and Dirt Every Day shows.
On Dirt Every Day, the guys have found, fixed up, and flogged some absurd vehicles. Who can forget their swapping a diesel engine into a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner? Or their racing a ferry with "Tubesock," the Jeep Wrangler with so many tires it can float? Or setting up a Winnebago motorhome for offroading?
But with its straight-exhaust Cummins engine, 65-inch tractor tires, and mud-bog lift kit, Dirt Every Day's most hardcore offroad vehicle is Episode 74's, Dodge Ram.
Mud Bogging
Mud bogging is a popular sport in the United States and Canada. It is also known as mud racing, mud running, mud drags, or simply mudding. In the sport, 4x4 offroad vehicle owners try to drive through a mud pit, swamp, or bog. The winner is either the driver who gets the farthest or traverses the obstacle the quickest.
Many amateurs get together to enjoy being outdoors and doing some casual mudding. Some competitive mud boggers build up specialty vehicles to take part in sanctioned competitions. Mud drag events are held by the American Mud Racing Association and the National Mud Racing Organization. You can read the NMRO rulebook for more information.
It was only a matter of time before the cast of Dirt Every Day went mud bogging. Though mudding is popular across North America, Florida is renowned for deep, difficult bogs. Mud Every Day signed up to race at Plant Bamboo in Okeechobee, Florida. The only problem was that they didn't have a truck. As usual, the guys at Dirt Every Day planned to fly to Florida, find an old truck, prepare it for the race, and then compete.
The Diesel Dodge Ram
Dirt Every Day's Fred Williams went to Florida two days before the race. His mission: find a truck ready for the mud bogs. He looked at a sixth-generation bullnose high-boy, similar to this 1979 4x4 Ford F150. He decided the short bed truck wasn't long enough to keep a straight line in the mud. He also considered a newer lifted four-door Chevrolet, similar to WhistlinDiesel's Chevy Silverado MonsterMax. But the Chevy's owner wanted much more money than what was in Fred's budget. Finally, he found a 2nd Generation Cummins-powered Dodge Ram. The truck needed some work but would eventually make a capable mud bogging machine.
Fred's new truck was a second-generation Dodge Ram with a first-generation Cummins engine. The rear window even sported a 12>24 sticker, popular among truck owners with first-generation Cummins engines (12 valve), as opposed to second-generation (24 valve) engines.
The Dodge Ram Fred bought had been modified with an exhaust stack, sticking straight out of the hood. Besides being loud and smoky, this modification keeps mufflers or catalytic converters from slowing down the engine and robbing horsepower. Finally, Fred's truck came with a towering lift kit that was mud bog ready. Though the engine and lift kit were ready for competition, Fred was about to find out his truck needed some other critical components replaced.
Mudding Machine
Fred was joined in Florida by Dirt Every Day's David Chapelle (no relation to the comedian) and the two of them got to work on their new Ram. The 5.9 liter Cummins engine had plenty of power: so much power that it had already worn out one transmission. They found a transmission from a newer truck and decided to swap it out, the night before the mud bog races. They detached both the front and rear driveshafts but had a difficult time removing the transmission through the truck's lifted suspension. After some maneuvering, they were able to get the old transmission out and the new transmission in. They replaced all the driveshaft universal joints and reassembled their truck.
As the two began to test their diesel truck, they found it wasn't producing any electricity. They were able to locate an alternator and do an 11th-hour swap, to restore the truck's electronics.
Finally, they decided they needed larger tires for the deep Okeechobee mud bogs. Some truck owners install aftermarket 33-inch tires. Others, who need even more clearance, insist on 35-inch tires. A select few drivers, engaged in serious rock-crawling, require 37-inch tires. But the Florida mud bogs need an entirely different setup. Fred and David found a set of 65-inch tractor tires and bolted them onto their mud bog ready Dodge Ram. At 1 AM, they were finally stopped work and transported their race-ready vehicle to the bog. Their only problem was figuring out how to climb into their gigantic monster truck!
Fred and David were finally able to hoist one another into their offroad machine. They set out into the bogs of Florida and spent the rest of the episode plowing through as much mud as possible.
You can watch Dirt Every Day Episode 74 on MotorTrend. Or you can preview the trailer on Youtube. Finally, you can see the Episode recap on Facebook. Or read more about the show's original inspiration.
Sources: FourWheeler.com, MudRacersAssociation.org, PlantBamboo.net, and MotorTrend.com