Building The Most Sought After Duramax From Home! New Wheels Just Arrived

Three months ago I picked up this truck for $ 5,000. It’S a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado and essentially, what I did is I took it to the house. I stripped it all the way down to the frame I cleaned it up restored it the best way that I could and then I picked up a Facebook Marketplace, donor Duramax engine. We did a head, gasket job, we studded it. We put a ton of upgraded Diesel Parts on it.

Of course, we threw a 64 mm RDS turbo that thing screams by the way, but I rolled the dice a little bit honestly. I didn’t know for sure if this was all going to work out, but she fired up. The truck runs great. If I’m not mistaken. We introduced this diesel truck on the channel about 3 months ago and we’re already revealing the wheel and tire setup, and you got to watch this video from start to finish.

I really want to hear your feedback on the direction of the build. I have my ideas and I’m going to explain that here at the end of the video, but for now we’re going to go ahead and put the bed on the truck which needs to happen. And then, after that, we’re going to take the wheels and tires to a local repair shop, we’re going to go ahead and get them mounted and balanced, bring it back here to the garage we’re going to slap him on and sort of button. This truck all back together and by the way I did not cheap out on tires. This is a set of nitos.

I’M going explain you guys as specs talk to you guys about why I picked them, but I have to say I am so pumped to share this journey with you guys. But if this is your first time, stopping by hit that subscribe button for me also hit that notification Bell, you guys, cannot miss an episode and by the way I wanted to send a special shout out to Matt. Congratulations. We just notified the winner and we let him know that he was a lucky person that was drawn to win this month’s Turbo giveaway. And, of course, I wanted to send a special shout out to everyone who participated in that, but with all of that, out of the way, let’s go ahead and get right into this, it’s like 6:00 a.

In the morning I have the tires loaded up. They were actually back there from last night, a little Frosty, but that’s okay, we’re loaded up we’re ready to go. Let’S head over there right now and show you guys what I got so I’m here at A & D repair the shop early morning we’re going to go ahead and get started, I’m going to show you guys the rims first and then again we’ll talk about the No tires, but I went a little bit of a different direction. I went with Rough Country Wheels.

I’Ve never done that before only because we’ve just added rough country line to our website – and I thought this would be a good opportunity to go ahead and showcase. Some of that, let me unbox that really quick! I want you guys to. Let me know in the comments what you think I’m done can’t believe did that I got that on video man, well we’re balancing them. So we’ll know if they’re uh, that one bent, but I’m sure at least it’s in the bo, I’m sure it’s good what’, you say at least it’s in the Box yeah.

I guess you’re right. At least it’s in the Box. Oh gosh, okay, I’m not going to leave that out of my edits, I’m just going to show you guys that one that was embarrassing all right. Let’S see what these look like. These are the s96 Rough Country Wheels black yeah we’re going black black with a chrome Mill, a bad at all, a Nifty, looking wheel, everything I thought of seeing these in person.

These look really nice. Look at the got sort of a mil Chrome accent. Maybe machine sort of look to it um. Basically, all yeah, yeah, sort of a high gloss sort of black looks good man which vehicle there’s going on uh you’ve never seen it before. Is it the the silver one, the silver one, your $ 5,000 special?
I think it was 5,000 bucks, no rust. Oh boy, fun, yeah yeah, but it runs it runs. Has it ran since you pulled the engine out? No, there there’s no engine in the truck. Oh okay, yeah.

I I slapped it on Facebook engine, but it actually fired. No blowby, no, nothing, that’s good! So I’m pretty ped! Let’S get these prepped to mount them yeah! These are the Trail Grapplers a little aggressive, but not uh, nice and flat.

It’S going to make a lot of contact surface with the road which is good. So it’s! It’S a sort of an Mt, it’s an at it’s an Mt, but it’s not an aggressive Mt yeah. It’S not as aggressive as what you had on the the wife Max, but yeah. 33.

12. 1/2 R, 22s uh netive 24 offset. So I think it’s not it’s! It’S going to be about as wide as this tire 12 and2 yeah. This should beat up all right yeah, I did drop it.

A little bit is: do we have any nicker? Actually I just felt it it’s right. There look. It looks like I’m sure it’s fine. I’M sure we didn’t bend the wheel.
No, it looks pretty straight. Looks like it’s just a superficial, surface yeah. I guess we’ll know when we put it on the balance machine very much so so. This is what it looks like. Obviously we had to take off the center Hub Cap, but we’ll show you guys the process it’s kind of touchy, because we have to put where’s it at y.

So we have to put. We have to leave that on there um because since it’s reverse First Mount, of course this is going to be upside down. So it’s going to be inverted right here, so the face of the wheel will be downward right and the reason for that is because we don’t want to jack up the outer lip of this when we go to mount these tires on there, because once this thing Starts spinning it might possibly kiss that wheel and just Mar it a little bit. We don’t want that to happen, but luckily look didn’t do anything to the rim. Obviously, but look at this is the other side looks good to me.

No issues all right. Let’S see if we can get this in one shot, I doubt it, but no faith you’re, a strong guy. You can do this, it’s not really strength. I think it’s more technique all right, let’s see if we can get it on at one shot. What nice work!

Now I’m sure we can see on this where it kissed it. You see that where it kind of Ruffles it up, but that’s the reason why we put the plastic on there, so it doesn’t do that to the wheel which it didn’t. It looks good, all right. I guess I’ll, try it.

I don’t think I’m going to do it, I’m not a professional like Matt over here. Oh, I have faith in you Josh we’re going to do it you’re going to be a go. Never done that before so I don’t know, that’s cool, usually we just put them on the rim, but that’s way more efficient and it’s fun. And you look like Mr Incredible doing it right man exactly here. We go.

Sometimes you fill up really nice. Sometimes they don’t add us a sticker pile over here for it yeah here you go sticker, pile look at that. First time go. We don’t need to put weights on it. Oh, I begged a differ all right, so we’re putting the hub caps back on, and this is the last wheel and I’m really excited this looks amazing.

This looks better than I actually thought in my mind, which is good. I didn’t think they were going to look terrible. I knew that this was going to be a complete home run, but they look really really nice. So I’ll go ahead and lay all these out and show you guys them, then we’ll go ahead and load them on the back of the truck, get back to the shop and get them on the truck cuz. That’S what you’re watching this for but uh!

This is the cherry on top, I’m really excited to see how this ties the build in together, even though the build really isn’t put together. Cuz, you guys already know, I don’t have the bumpers on it. Yet it just looks a little funny. Sorry guys I kind of went squirrel on you here, but I just saw this really cool old fire truck that actually was a real fire truck that they use in Bath Township. It’S pretty cool they’re working on this thing here, they’re actually doing some sort of like mid project check them out on their YouTube channel, I’ll link that in the description below, if you guys want to watch the whole deal on that, but this is really sweet.
I can’t wait to see what they do with it, I’m kind of hoping that they do a paint job in, like I know, they’re just trying to get it to run right now, man, that would be a cool video check them out. Man cuz, if they can get this thing running and moving that’s kind of a big deal cuz. When was the last time. This thing actually ran uh. As far as we know, it has been over 10 years since it’s been driven, that’s not too bad, but still I mean that’s a while.

That’S just based on the guy that brought it in uh. As long as he’s been there, it hasn’t moved uh. They just been pushing in and out of the shop, so it could be much longer than that. Since it’s been driven that is neat here. We go.

We got it home, I’m going go and mount these on right now, but again, you’re looking at a set of 33 12/2 R 22s. They all vary in size, obviously, but this is my very first time ever getting my hands on a set of Nitto Trail Grapplers. I’M really pumped about it uh, the sidewall tread is way more aggressive than this side, as you guys can see. So it’s really your preference. Of course.

I went with the most aggressive part and the biggest reason for that is because we want to make this bad girl look mean. She’S already got a lift kit on it. It’S not super wide. You know again we’re going negative 24 offsets. It’S still going to look good, it’s going to have some offset to it, but it won’t be too wide, but this is a pretty unique design.

I would say this is more of like a middle ground. So if you don’t want to go, Nitto mud Grapplers a little too aggressive, maybe a little too loud, you’re, definitely going to want to step it down to a set of Trail Grapplers. Of course, this tread pattern is going to be a step up from the tear Grapplers. So this is definitely a perfect middle ground and with it being a 2500 HD, of course, you’re going to want to go ahead and go with l tires and not to mention both sides of the tire is three ply: pretty solid construction. It’S really nice to get my hands on it and actually look at the tread block.

Pattern looks like it’s going to evacuate a lot of the mud, the Rocks the snow, the rain things like that. It looks like it’s interconnected with a reinforcement for these Treads. So I’d imagine this is a pretty stout tire, but that’s my quick review on the nto Trail Grapplers. Let me know in the comments what you guys think I’ve been doing a lot of reading research reviews on these, and people are saying they love them, they’re, not as loud as you think they are. This is pretty funny.

I got to share this with you. Look at the size difference between the roller tires that we have versus the 33s. That’S crazy! This truck sits way higher. I cannot wait to get rid of those half ton Mirrors by the way we’re going to be throwing a set of boost, Auto Parts tow mirrors on there.

It’S going to look so good. They don’t look bad paint match, but I think we need to throw some nice HD tow mirrors on this thing to really complete this truck. So last but not least, we’re going to go ahead and put that last wheel on on there, but before I do that this just came to mind. You guys remember when I first started this truck that nasty noise when we started it it made like that loud. Oh, that’s a starter!

That’S what that noise is! That’S a starter. I mean it’s literally brand new, it’s kind of a pain to get to now, since it’s buried in there, but I’m going to drop the exhaust really quick and just remove it and install a much better starter. I mean I’m already there. I know I’m going to procrastinate and say I’ll do it later and I never do, but I’m going to install one of these, this I’m not joking, I’m not messing around these are way better than OE.

This is an XDP starter, believe it or not. It’S actually smaller than a stock starter, which is pretty awesome, because it’s going to be a lot easier for me to install this, because those PP manifolds are definitely in the way. But the idea here is, it has more torque spins faster draws, less amperage they’ve always had really good reviews on these starters. I’M going to slap this in really quick, so I don’t have any issues if you want to pick one of these up for your diesel, your Ford, your Dodge um or your Chevy, definitely do that I’ll. Leave that link in the description.

It’S on my website, truckmaster diesel.com, but this video is not about a gear reduction starter, but I figured I’d throw that in there cuz. I have all of this room for activities, but I’m not kidding guys after throwing these PPE manifolds on this truck. It’S going to be super hard for me to remove that iess said I got to remove that. I don’t even know if I’m to video this, I just dumped the battery cables.

That way, I don’t get electrocuted. Here’S the before and after clearly look exactly the same. They do have this nice coating on it. So shouldn’t have to worry about your starter, corroding or anything or getting all rusty, but I’m going to go ahead and throw this in right. Now all right!
So I’m going to go ahead and Bolt the starter down that actually went pretty easy, but you kind of had to play with it in order to get it in there kind of like that upside down method. But that’s how I installed it: I’m going to go ahead and connect the wires to it. I don’t need a video of that part, but I’m pretty excited to see how quickly this truck starts up. I have no doubt in my mind that the with the amount of torque that that thing puts out that this truck should fire right up no problem, but that’s what it looks like installed got the exhaust back on we’re good to go. I’M going to go ahead and put this tire back on.

Also the bed is still just chilling here, so I got to throw the bed bolts on man that fired up so quick turn it off. That’S crazy! So let’s go ahead and take a look at it from outside. This is this is so exciting man wow the truck, looks so much different. I love it.

I absolutely love it. I guess that’s what matters right. Unfortunately, I just can’t unsee this I’m going to have to point this out to you guys, but when you start messing with offset when Wheels start poking outside of the Body Lines, you’re, definitely going to notice that the rear end of these classic body style, pickup trucks. The rear end naturally, is going to be lot narrower in the rear, so unfortunately, I’m going to have to put some spacers in the rear just to level everything out which are 2 in by the way, but seriously. I am really happy with the way this looks.

I think I found my new favorite looking tire, but two things here. Let me know in the comments: should I roll with the Chrome lug nuts, or should we go with black? Let me know, and then also let me know in the comments. What is your favorite Nitto tire? What’S the best look, is it the Trail Grapplers?

Is it the Recon Grapplers? I love these as far as traveling with them pulling trailers, they’re, so quiet so smooth. Of course, you guys know. I did a previous video on the nto. 420 vs, I think a lot of people love that design, but as far as looks my favorite looking tire is definitely the Trail Grapplers.

These things look mean, and over the years of building diesel trucks on the channel, I’m learning really quickly how fast my direction of a build goes when I start building it when I start just changing things, this is the prime example right here. This is called the sunkiss, it’s a 2004 Chevy Duramax, but we called it the rust Max, because this thing is from Michigan. It was Rusty and my overall Vision on the sunkiss build was simply just to put some fresh panels on it. Put some new doors on it, maybe paint it gray and get it to run right. That was pretty much it.

I never thought I’d ever get to this point, but the vision on this truck is not a show truck. This is just to get it to run. Obviously I did a frame off, but I’m not trying to make it look like you know a show truck. This is just a vehicle that I’m going to enjoy driving, but I want it to look tough, so my direction on this one. I’M really thinking about off-road front bumpers.

Of course, the to this isn’t going to be a very extravagant build. I’M definitely going to clean up the interior. Put new seat cushions on it. Um, probably throw a new center console in this thing, because this thing looks beat up dashboard. I might do a piping kit, I might do traction bars.
I might do airbags in the rear. As far as I’m concerned, that’s probably where I’m going to go with this one – and I know some of you guys are going to call me out and say yeah right and also it does have a goose neck hitch to it. So I’m going to be able to hook up my gooseneck trailer to it um it. Someone put a hole there prior to me, buying this to put a stack in it, and I might actually diesel stack it here in the future. But surprisingly, these Rough Country, rims, don’t look too bad, but I did just load like five or six sets of different looking styles of rims on my website so check that out.

If you want to pick up a set, so I’m going to load the truck on the trailer because we’re headed to a body shop uh, not in this video, so stay tuned, hit the notification Bell and do me a favor, make sure your notification Bell is being Hit because it looks like Again, YouTube is unclicking your notification Bell and even unsubscribing from you. So if you’re watching this and you’ve subscribed to me in the past, just make sure all of that stuff is checked for me. I really would appreciate it. You guys cannot miss another episode. We are just getting started with this winter build project and I am so excited to share the journey with you.