Major Dakota: Tom Major's 2002 Dodge has a fullsize off-road appetite

摘要

"I've had this truck since high school," Tom Major told us when we met him on a lakebed in the California desert. He drove the '02 Dodge Dakota stock for quite some time, getting into whatever mud and rocks he could in central New Jersey, before significantly modifying the truck. After stockpiling parts and honing his fabrication skills, Tom was ready to give his rig the off-road chops it deserved. Tom chopped the truck's frame from the firewall forward and rebuilt it using 4×3-inch, 3/16-inch-thick box tube. This allowed him to get rid of the Dakota's wide framehorns and also gave him space to mount the steering box he gleaned from a Ford Bronco, replacing the factory rack-and-pinion setup. Out back, Tom rebuilt the frame from the cab to the rear bumper, in the name of strength and corrosion removal. Other notable parts of Tom's Dakota include one-ton axles and coilover suspension front and rear, a stealthily relocated fuel tank, artful aluminum work in the bed and fender wells, and an internal rollcage cleanly tied into the truck's frame.