2008 GMC Sierra 3500 HD

What kind of vehicle were you driving when you were 18? How would you have liked to have been driving a diesel 4x4 with 10 inches of lift on 40-inch tires? Well, guess what? This '08 GMC Sierra 3500 HD belongs to 18-year-old Patrick Clark of Las Vegas, Nevada--the son of Pat Clark, of Pat Clark Pontiac and GMC, as well as Pat Clark Motorsports. From the very beginning, Patrick wanted to do something different with his new rig. Whether the truck was towing, hauling, or blasting through the dunes, he wanted to have the ultimate four-wheel drive.

Patrick's stock '08 GMC HD nearly had it all. With the most powerful Duramax engine option available from the factory, arguably the plushest of interiors, and some of the finest creature comforts, the new GMC's are hard to beat, except for one fatal off-road flaw--independent front suspension (IFS). Although this isn't the first lifted Duramax-powered GMC Patrick has driven, it is the first one he's converted to a straight-axle frontend. When deciding what to do with his latest truck, he and one of his dad's employees, Ron Reuchalski, came across Off Road Unlimited's website, and quickly realized what needed to be done. So, the call was made to Maurice Rozo, owner of Off Road Unlimited in Burbank, California, who was more than happy to install one of his GM straight-axle suspension kits on a willing GMC owner, as well as some other trick off-road accessories.

Thoroughly built would be an understatement for this truck. Eighteen-year-old Patick races side-by-sides in the Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) series, so he's no stranger to the off-road world, and wanted a truck as capable off the pavement as it was on it. The straight-axle swap from ORU consisted of a Dynatrac Pro 60 axle, replacing the torsion bars of the factory IFS with a four-link system, 2-inch King coilover shocks with reservoirs, King bumpstops, limit straps, and two 2 -inch King reservoir shocks out back. With 10 inches of total lift, Patrick's HD towers over his previous truck, an '05 -ton with 6 inches of lift and 35-inch tires. Any time you build a capable off-road vehicle, tire clearance is an issue that needs to be addressed. Knowing that full suspension travel was a must, Rozo took the truck to a local autobody shop in Burbank. There, all four wheelwells were cut and re-worked to make room for the 40-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claws.

Off-road vehicles need power to blast through the dunes, so the next priority was getting more grunt out of the new LMM engine. The truck was taken to Pacific Performance Engineering, where a Dual Fueler CP3 injection pump system was installed and an Xcelerator programmer turned up the Duramax electronically, while a set of gauges was installed. A 4-inch turbo-back black-coated exhaust from Rolling Big Power was added as well.