From Punished to Punisher: Brett Marcum’s 2006 Ram Drag Truck

If you’ve ever been to a farm, you’ll notice diesel fumes are in the air. Whether it’s from trucks pulling equipment, feed, or cattle around, diesels trucks like the Dodge Ram are an absolute must. The power and torque a diesel engine offers make for an easy tow when loaded down, especially when you’re cutting across the western edge of Iowa.

Brett Marcum, of Logan, Iowa, grew up on the family farm. The Marcums owned a great deal of livestock, and often took them to local cattle shows. Intrigued, Brett followed the footsteps of his elders and began showing some of the family herd as well.

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Brett Marcum’s 2006 Dodge Ram drag truck is called Punisher because his plan with the truck is to do exactly that. Punish the opponent.

As the showing became more of a hobby for Brett, he realized he needed some transportation for the cows and himself to make it to these shows.”When I was 14 years old, I started to buy my own cattle and show them,” explained Brett. Little did he know his passion was about to change dramatically from cows to ponies.

At first, Brett had intentions to build a fun, daily-driven street truck. He purchased a 2006 crew cab Ram to do so. However, as he started to build this crew cab, things took a turn for the worse.

With potential future plans to drag race, it was a prerequisite to have an automatic transmission.

It was getting old, continuously twisting or snapping the input shaft in the G56 manual transmission. Like any one of us would have done, Marcum decided to change things up for the better. “I was getting tired of fixing broken input shafts, so I decided to build an automatic transmission for it,” Brett said. “With the help of Banghart Diesel, that became possible.”

After the transmission swap, he looked ahead and decided what was best for the future. “I figured if I decided to go with more power in the future, something was going to need to change,” Brett explained. “I came to the realization that it would be best to have a single cab instead of the crew cab.”

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For a truck that is dedicated to drag racing now, it still cleans up nicely for the Ultimate Callout Challenge Show and Shine Competition

So what did he do? Brett bought a single cab truck and swapped everything over to the single cab body. “During the swap of engines and transmissions, I decided it would be a good idea to scrap the daily driver idea, and just build a drag truck,” Brett said. “It went from an 8,000-pound farm hand, to a lightweight, purpose built, drag racing machine.”

Old Skool Fab mirror delete plates were added to save weight, and other luxuries like air conditioning, were removed.

Buying a new truck while ditching a project mid build is a somewhat odd task. But, Brett looked at it a different way. “I love competition, and I’ve always had a passion for diesel trucks, so what better way to jump into it?” he said.

Shown are the GTS Fiberglass bed sides mounted to the frame, and a custom fuel cell to save more weight. Brett Marcum also installed the BAD Diesel transmission cooler to keep the Banghart Diesel built 48RE cool.

Brett took the truck’s weight issue seriously and purchased a set of five pound fiberglass bedsides from GTS Fiberglass. He exchanged the oversize crew cab for a single cab would cut the weight of the vehicle immensely.

The Powerplant

This may be the engine bay of a drag truck, but it is still eye-catching.

The truck has a 5.9-liter Cummins with dual CP3’s and compound turbochargers. Those added parts complimented nicely with the stainless covers and powdercoating. Inside the engine is a set of CP Carillo connecting rods hooked to a set of forged aluminum Mahle performance race pistons. Holding it all together is gorilla engine girdle.

The cylinder head was ported and polished. The intake plenum was milled off and set up for a side draft intake using a Hellman Performance Intake. Brett went with 103-pound valve springs, pushrods and oversized valve seats to follow after a Hamilton 188/210 camshaft. Holding the head down is a set of ARP new age 625 head studs.

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Brett has gotten serious enough about weight loss. He’s torn the factory dash and pulled everything to pinch off as much weight as possible.

Making enough power to bury one of these Rams in the 9-second range takes a great amount of fuel. Brett went big on the fuel by installing a PPE Dual CP3 kit and a set of 500 percent over stock Super Mental injectors. These matched perfectly with a set of dual 12mm CP3s from Dynomite Diesel Performance. They are fed with plenty of fuel by a pair of Pureflow AirDog 200 fuel lift pumps.

Exhaust from the engine was pushed out through the hood using a brand new Steed Speed T4 flange manifold andan Old SkoolFab carbon fiber hood stack. Brett had a custom fabricated side -by-side twin kit by Banghart Diesel installed. It uses a primary billet S484 and a secondary S369 SXE on the manifold.

Brett really did a number on his engine bay with all of the stainless covers and powder coating. Doing away with the exhaust that ran all the way to behind the bed saved him a ton of weight as well.

Making all of this power is great, but traction is the name of the game. If you can’t get all that power to the ground, what’s the point? Realizing that traction would be an issue with his Dodge Ram, Brett installed a set of 18×10 Fuel Off-Road Throttle wheels wrapped with Hoosier 325/45R18 drag radials.

He’s got the power and he’s got the traction, what’s next? Weak points are going to be found, and knowing this, Brett teamed up with Yukon Gear & Axle. He went with a spool differential and 38, spline axles.

These drag radials create a huge footprint, which helps Brett push his truck and make consistent 1.4-1.5 second 60-foot times.

With less weight in the tail of the Dodge Ram, Brett needed everything he could get. He knew it would be necessary to upgrade the rear suspension to keep that back end from bouncing. He matched the lightweight back with a set of QA1 adjustable shocks. Brett assured us, that he plans on getting this truck down in the 1.3-1.4 60-foot range in upcoming seasons.

Pin It To Win It

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The BAD transmission cooler and the relocated battery are all that remain in the rear of the truck.

After multiple good test hits coming in at the low to mid-10-second range, Brett finally got things figured out. Brett said, “In 569 days, the truck went from the field to a personal best 9.67 at 144.74 mph in the 1/4-mile.” According to the math, that is moving for a truck and should be a respectable 1/8-mile nearing the low six-second range.

Brett wanted to thank all of the sponsors that got him to this point. “Without them, none of this would be possible,” Brett said. “Thank you, Banghart Diesel Performance, Great White Diesel Performance, Pureflow Airdog Fuel Systems, Dynomite Diesel Performance, Yukon Gear and Axle, and Optilube for the great sponsorships.”

This Dodge Ram is far from complete. We cannot wait to see what else Brett Marcum and “Punisher” have in store. He hopes for a sub 10-second pass in the 1/4-mile this year, which is an extremely tough goal. What do you think this truck is going to do? Let us know in the comments below!

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Be sure and check out Brett’s Instagram for updates on his build.

About the author

Artie Maupin

Artie Maupin is from Southeast Missouri and has an extreme passion for anything diesel. He loves drag racing of all kinds, as well as sled pulling competitions.
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