New Beginnings
Our 2002 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins was originally used by a dealer as a tow truck for transporting vehicles all around the country. When we came across this Dodge there were 200,000 miles on it, which might cause some to overlook the truck. But not Searle.
“We just don’t care. We’re going to make it a head turner,” says Searle, the owner of the truck. “This truck is the Honey Badger.”
Since the engine was completely stock we had a great foundation to get started on. For all work done on the engine and the transmission, we enlisted the help of Ryan Lendefeld, owner of RKL Diesel in Springville, Utah. Ryan has been turning wrenches since he was 11 years old helping his father build race transmission so we were confident we were in good hands.
For the first part of the build, we went right to work on how the truck breathed with an S&B Stage 3 cold air intake system, an Edge Attitude CTS and a 4-inch Turboback exhaust for it. After that, we turned our focus to how the power got to the ground with complete overhaul of the transmission. Ryan is best known for his work with transmissions and the end result of the job proved just that.
Since we were planning on rejuvenating the Honey Badger with some added power, we had to make sure that the fuel system was up to snuff. For that, we relied again on the help of Ryan and his crew at RKL Diesel. For the lift pump, we went with a system from AirDog. We also replaced the old, failing injector pump with a Bosch VP-44 unit from Certified Injection in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lastly, we upgraded the injectors with Dynamite Diesel Performance’s 50hp injector nozzles.