It’s that time of year again. The trees are losing their leaves, the weather is turning cold and major storms are hitting most of the country. What does that mean to us diesel folks? Sadly, it means the end of the racing/pulling season for most people. But, if you look at the bright side, many people are able to start making extra money plowing roads and parking lots. In addition, this time of year really start the beginning of a whole new season. It’s the beginning of the “I’m going to tear this truck down, fix this and redo that and add this; so I can kick so and so’s a** next year” season. It’s this special time of year when major builds start and that’s the stuff we LOVE here. So, let’s talk about what we are hearing is out there as every competitor re-evaluates their truck and looks to jump to the next level of winning for 2014.

We are seeing a large number of companies either in the market already or entering the market planning for to offer more performance parts. This is good news for all of us. Take Banks Power for example, this year they launched their 427 stroker engine. What Banks has been able to accomplish is a 427 stroker kit that doesn’t require machining to the block. In addition, they have fully engineered a new crank that uses larger bearings. They have been watching the market and are seeing quite a few cranks break and the larger bearings along with some other features fix this issue. So, you can build your engine once and be done with it. We are sure that this will be something we start seeing more and more people move to during the racing season.

Then there is BD Diesel Performance. When we spoke with their CEO Brian Roth, their list of new product offerings was so long, not even Santa could have kept up with it. They jumped into the racing market last year fully committed to making a difference and you can really tell they learned a lot by the vast amount of new products. In addition, they are actively looking for new racers to sponsor (now might be a good time to hit them up). The racers they helped last year all moved up substantially in their class with some even winning. The proof is certainly in the results as to what they have achieved over the past year or so. Be sure to check their website to see all of the goodies that are now available because we would have to dedicate an entire issue to cover all of them.

Colt Cams has been a major player in the market for decades but they have gotten much more aggressive with expanding their product line as well. This year they have released new billet camshafts for Power Stroke and Duramax. This added to their current line of billet Cummins cams and they have a ton of high performance options for all three brands. Then when you start to mix in the other major players that have been in the racing market for years, like Industrial Injection, ATS, High Tech Turbo and BorgWarner you have a variety of turbocharger configurations for diesel engines. Other companies like Turbonetics with their monstrous Torque-Master wastegate and Turbosmart are offering a new ways to control the pressures with their e-Boost 2 boost controller making the possibilities endless.

But that’s not all, the tuners are getting in on diversifying their offerings as well. With EFILive offering Duramax tuning as well as some years of Cummins, well established tuners who have been considered brand specific like Eric Eldreth at Innovative Diesel Performance (IDP) are lending their tuning know how to the Cummins market. In fact, Eldreth is a perfect example; we recently wrote a story about his latest project vehicle turning a former snow plow truck into a 10-second drag truck. Talk about taking it to a new level. Within in very short period of time, the truck went from pushing snow out of the way to pushing competitors out of the way as he works his way up the podium. You can read all about it here.

So, now we know what is happening in the market with diversification, but what’s even better is we have examples to help you along. John Robinson and Brad Deeter (both people featured in our Lessons Learned) are upgrading their rigs this winter. Robinson dropped off his funny car as Scheid Diesel to have an entirely new engine put into the car. This new engine is one of Scheid’s newest creations, a billet 5.9 block with all the goodies inside. Rumors are, the engines are extremely reliable and producing north of 2400 horsepower. Deeter, too, is having one of the new billet engines installed, but not in his current pulling truck. He is actually having an entirely new truck build this year hoping to debut at the beginning of the season.

Then you have innovators like Rob Coddens aka “Idaho Rob” that isn’t strictly focused on racing. He has been working hard to produce power on emissions equipped trucks for more than a year now. He is actually in the process of building his personal LML that still has all emission equipment, but will lay down some head turning power. In addition, this El Camino and GMC are both being stripped down and the team at ATP trucks is going through them getting them ready for next season.

Now, we know what you’re thinking. Ok, so a lot of racers and pullers are tearing apart their rigs and preparing for competition next season, but what do I care? I’m a baller, a shot caller, better known as a “show truck guy”. Well, we know plenty of show truck guys who are doing just the same thing. And the best part about the diesel market is there is something available for everyone and every taste. So, let’s look at what’s been hot for the show vehicle truck.

Take Weld Racing, for example. They have recently introduced a new coating to their wheels that will help keep the wheels looking new much, much longer. In addition, for you dually guys, they have one of the coolest new wheels in the market. There new Delta One hub-less wheel. These wheels are a direct result from their racing innovation as they had been looking for ways to lighten their wheels while retaining the strength for their drag racing clientele. They introduced the hub-less design last year for drag racing and this year, they have taken that technology and brought it into the truck market for their dually customers.

In addition to the Weld Racing, companies like Rigid Industries are bringing the lessons they have learned in off road racing to the main stream with their incredibly bright led lighting packages. Not only can these make a difference in your night time driving, but they look very cool. So cool in fact, that adding the rectangular light bars to your truck is one of the biggest trends we are seeing. Companies like Road Armor are introducing entire product lines to integrate these square light bars into their bumpers. Some of the new product line even trades out the tried and true winch for light bars.

On the interior, there are quite a few companies looking to take customization to the next level. Auto Meter recently introduced their Custom Shop, which allows customers to pretty much fully customize their gauges. Anything from the size and style of the gauge, to custom logos, colors, lights, font, you name it, you can probably change it. So, getting the right interior look is pretty easy. Then on the audio side of the equation, Kicker recently expanded their line of Powersports coaxial speakers. With the additional sizes, finding door and kick panel speakers is much easier.

Now, that your ride is ready for the show, it’s time to make sure you are too. We’ve got you covered here as well. You can check out the latest in fashion apparel in our holiday buyer’s guide. This guide features the best in shirts and more from companies like Destroked, Elite Diesel Engineering, Industrial Injection, and Thoroughbred Diesel. Get one, get them all, whatever works for you. Because, “Hey Jack,” all it really means is doing laundry less often and who doesn’t love that. You wife might even reward you, “if you know what I mean”. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

With all these things going on in the winter season, we say, “blah” to the winter blues and hello to the winter garage festivities. Let the fun begin. And when it does, be sure to let us know. We will be checking out all of our regular haunts on the forums, Facebook, reaching out to our buddies and keeping our finger on the pulse of the industry. But, hearing from you is what we like most, so hit us up anytime!