The Four Wheeler Midwest Bureau is surrounded by farm fields.  Beans, hay, corn, it's all here.  So are diesel trucks.  All of my relatives have 'em and lately it's been pretty fascinating to watch as old trucks have grenaded and new ones have arrived.  It began with the passing of the 6.5L in my brother-in-law's '95 Chevy 3500 dualie.  Broken crank.  On the highway.  Hauling a load.  Major pain. 

So he gets the thing home and decides to replace the 6.5L with a Cummins.  Sure, he could fix the 6.5, but where's the fun in that?  He could buy a new Silverado 3500HD with a Duramax, but that too is apparently not fun.  This photo shows the dead V-8 flanked by the Cummins he is going to transplant.  He's a die-hard manual trans fan (like Holman), so he wants to mate the trucks original NV4500 to the Cummins.  Easier said than done.  He's currently having an adapter made to mate the two in wedded bliss.  He says he'll solve the intercooler issue next.

With his Chevy taking a powder and a new piece of farm equipment needing a gooseneck ride from Kansas to his farm, he borrows his son's Super Duty.  Yep, this is "Workin Dog" that has appeared in past issues of Four Wheeler.  On the return trip in the truck, the 7.3L Power Stroke lunches a piston somewhere in Iowa.  A bad injector is deemed a likely suspect.  Brother-in-law and The Dawg are stopped cold.

Meanwhile, this fine speciman of a '99 Super Duty has arrived on the farm from Utah.  It looks like it was driven down an alley that was too narrow.  But hey, it's 4WD, the Power Stroke runs great, and it was only $2000.  Nice color, too. 

The plan for this truck is to fix the cab and clip damage, pitch the bed and and fit it with a utility box.  Good thing it arrived, because the man has a business to run and a truck with a gooseneck hitch is mandatory.  In these photos it's wearing the front bumper and outside rear view mirrors pirated from Workin' Dog.    

So back to my brother-in-law who was marinating in a motel in Iowa with a dead truck and a trailer of farm goodies.  He picks up a local paper and scans for used trucks.  Lo and behold, he finds this Cummins-powered, manual trans, '96 Ram 3500 dualie for sale.  Problem is, it's 90 miles away and he has no wheels.  He calls the seller and after a game of 20 Questions tells him he'll buy it if the seller will deliver it to the truck stop.  Seller agrees, deal is done, Ram is part of the family.

So what's next?  Well, Workin' Dog's Power Stroke is getting an engine rebuild; we're hoping to hear the clatter of a Cummins from under the hood of the Chevy sometime soon; we're all thinking of painting our trucks the same smokin' blue as the Utah Super Duty; and I'm trying to finagle a way to get my brother-in-law to [cheaply] sell me the testosterone-oozing Ram 3500 when he's done with it.