Like many of us, we grow fond of our trucks and getting rid of them can be hard sometimes. So, when Chris Ryan’s 3500 was getting tired and worn out, it just happened to be a good time to build a pulling truck!

Over the years, Ryan’s pulling truck, affectionately called MUTT, has been a dominating force in the Texas Truck And Tractor Pulling Association (TTTPA). MUTT is not only the current points champion for 2013, but MUTT won in 2012, 2011 and 2010. Now that is pretty impressive to say the least.

Ryan has been able to stay on top because of his dedication to the sport of pulling and his constant pushing of the boundaries. In addition to his hard work, it is with the help of his friends JT Fondy, Shane McKee, Jason Flemming and wife Missy Ryan that they as a group have been able to keep MUTT on top, even if Ryan isn’t able to make a pull.

So, let’s take a closer look at this four time points champion

At the heart of any successful pulling truck is a strong power plant. While the 5.9L Cummins engine has been torn into numerous times by various companies, the current version was machined and assembled by Haisley Machine. The engine is running an Enterprise Engine Performance roller camshaft, one of Hamilton Cams 12 Valve heads with a custom ZZ Fabrication intake manifold on it.

The injection pump is a Columbus Diesel Supply that feeds a set of Haisley 5×25 injectors. For air, the class is limited to a 2.8 and the Haisley HX60 takes advantage of every bit of the rules to produce the awesome power that it does. When we asked Ryan how much power it is making at the flywheel, his response was priceless, “Never Enough!”

Behind the flywheel is a South Bend Triple disk clutch and an NV4500 manual transmission. The differentials house 4.88 gears which turn the Performance Pro axles. In turn, the axles are connected to 315/75R15 BFGoodrich.

Ryan and crew have spent a lot of time trying to dial in their chassis. They constantly are mounting GoPro camera’s all over the chassis to watch what is really happening. If you look at the rear end setup, you will notice quite a few bars forms triangles all over the place. They are trying to keep the axle as still as they can to ensure that the truck is tracking as straight as possible.

In the cab, things are very straight forward. The Auto Meter gauges allow the driver (usually Ryan, but not always) to know how much boost pressure the charger is making, what the EGT’s are and  what the coolant temperature is. To monitor what happened during the run, A Corsa data logging system has been installed and to keep the driver’s foot down, lined up with the pedal on those rough tracks, a custom hook has been made.

With the truck done, Ryan sent it over to Mineral Wells Collision Center to have the body and bed painted.

Once this MUTT was finally up and running, it has been dragging sleds around and putting footage on almost everyone at almost every pull it goes to.