Six years ago, Westen Champlin hit record and started talking to a camera. After dozens of viral YouTube videos, Champlin and his crew, including his brother, have more than 4 million subscribers. If you want to get a bit teary-eyed about the builder’s journey from youth homelessness to the Matty Metheson of cars, might I suggest one he did earlier this year. In it, he buys his mom, who’s fighting pancreatic cancer, a new GMC Sierra truck.

In any case, his latest video just launched, and already clocked 1.8 million views. And I love me a build vid.

It started with an old Dodge pickup. Well, two, actually…

“It was kinda one of those deals,” Champlin explains. “You buy one, you get one free.”

He went from his home state, Kansas, down to Oklahoma, interested in a red second-gen Dodge Ram 2500 truck. When he got there, he found not one, but two running specimens: a gas one, plus the beloved Cummins diesel version.

$7,000 later, and the flatbed lands back at 52-acre Horsepower Labs.

Now, some of the boys aren’t convinced Champlin actually got anything for free in the deal, but here they are.

Besides, they have big plans. Recipe alert!

How to make a backwards-driving 2nd-gen extended-cab 4WD Cummins 5.9L turbodiesel Ram truck

Say that 10 times, fast.

First, the team strips and guts the pickup they’re flipping around.

Once the cabin interior, dash, and steering column are out, they start stripping the front end and remove the bed. Next comes the cabin, leaving the engine and drivetrain on the frame.

With the bed and cabin off, they can theoretically flip the frame facing the other way. Then they can set the cabin on the back wheels and the bed on top of the engine bay.

Don’t push the Easy Button yet, though.

“To be honest, I thought building a backwards truck would be kind of easy,” Champlin remarks. 

The first conundrum is that the factory bedside frame is a lot taller than the frame under the cabin

To get the cabin to sit evenly across what were the rear wheels, they have to cut off some sticky-outie pieces of frame.

They sit the cabin down. It’s about four inches too high, but they think they can lower it another two…with a sledgehammer.

Next, the bed. Wade marks out a large section of the bed floor to cut out to make room for the engine. 

After that, the team handles swapping the steering, brakes, shifter, and, of course, the gas pedal. They take the front seats and flip those around to face the back window, since that’s now the windshield.

They use a FastCut CNC to fabricate an aluminum dash panel that’ll house all the controls. The exhaust had to be rerouted through the hood, too.

The build video’s a half-hour long, so I’ll leave the finer details for you to watch and enjoy:

In the end, the truck comes together impressively well.

“You’ve got it all backwards, officer.”

“How many times do you think you’re going to get pulled over?” “Oh, dude. At least 20,” Champlin predicted before starting the backward truck build.

After the first test drive, though, the guys make bets on how far Champlin can get before the cops pull him over.

Westen thinks he can get the truck to the Texas Roadhouse in Wichita. The others aren’t buying it. Whoever loses buys dinner.

Well, it happens fast, anyway.

“We’re like 150 feet away from the garage!”

The good thing is, the police know Champlin. Plus, the truck’s somehow road legal. It’s got tags, insurance, and required lights. The cops say “Hi” and take some pictures before moving on. 

“I feel pretty good about it,” Champlin says about how far he made it. Anyway, the video is loads of fun, and his channel‘s long been worth a follow, if you don’t already. And I can’t help but feel lucky to enjoy this stuff as part of my job.