2006 DODGE REGULAR CAB
IRREGULAR CAB
ERIC HELTON’S STUNNING REGULAR CAB 2006 DODGE DUALLY
BY CHRIS TOBIN
DIESEL
WORLD
MAGAZINE
There’s absolutely nothing regular about Eric Helton’s 2006 regular cab 2006 Dodge dually! The 34-year-old machinist from Rogersville, Tenn., has wanted a dually since he was a young boy and finally realized his dream in 2006 when he bought the truck new to tow his 1986 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS show car. Not long after that, he realized that the itch to show his dually needed to be scratched and he started slowly working on the machine with the goal in mind of building a clean and not overdone show truck that would have the “stock but not” look throughout the build.
Helton started with the upgrades when the truck first needed tires, opting to go with a set of polished 10-lug 22.5-inch Alcoa Classics for the front and outer rear wheels and Accuride 22.5-inch inner wheels. American Force adapters are used to mount the 10- lug wheels to the 8-lug truck. All six of the 22.5-inch wheels are wrapped in Sumitomo 255/70R22.5 ST727 OTR tires to provide plenty of longevity on the one-ton rig. Long spiked lug nut covers make the highly polished wheels really stand out. After the wheels and tires were mounted, Helton was hooked, and he went to work in earnest. The end result is the beautiful truck that you see here—although Helton says, as most gearheads do of their project trucks, it’s still not finished.
The highly detailed 5.9L Cummins engine under the hood looks awesome and has the oomph to back up its good looks, having put down nearly 700 hp and 1,250 lb-ft of torque on the DP Tuner mobile chassis dyno.
Body modifications for the Dodge came next after the wheels. It was stripped of its badges and then Helton sent a sport model grille, along with the mirrors, door handles and bumper trim, out to Shannon Smith at Smith Body Shop in Rogersville, Tenn., to be smoothed and treated to fresh coats of PS2 Bright Silver Metallic paint. The grille shell was gutted of its center bars and smoothed out before RDX billet inserts were installed. Matching RDX billet aluminum inserts were installed in the now color-matched bumper. Joey Davenport of Joey’s Hot Rods reworked the tailgate, removing the third brake light and refinishing it before repainting it. Helton opted to relocate the brake light to the bed below the tailgate.