2006 Chevy Silverado 2500HD

Gabriel Lopez of Madera, California, has always had lowered cars and trucks-and then he got the idea to lift one.

What started this idea was that he wanted to go to the sand dunes with his family, and he certainly couldn't do that with a lowered vehicle without getting stuck all the time. Gabriel drives this truck every day, and he also uses it to pull his fifth-wheel trailer or tow his quads and side-by-side.

So he made plans to lift his '06 Chevy 2500HD diesel pickup, but he couldn't stop there. He got a little carried away and built a really nice, clean truck that many envy. He wanted to make sure everything blended well, so no jarring, bright powdercoated colors underneath, no skulls painted on the body-nothing like that. He went with color matching-black and chrome. In fact, if he had it to do over again (which he just might), he would eliminate the chrome. It's just too much work to keep up and protect at the sand dunes. He might try black chrome though.

The lift was accomplished with a Cognito kit that can be set at anywhere from 7 to 9 inches. Gabriel has it set at 8.5 inches. Eight Fox shocks control the bouncing and a rear air-ride system with ladder bars affords a smooth ride on the rear of the truck.

Toyo Open Country M/T tires (35x12.5-20) are mounted on chrome KMC Diesel wheels with 4.5 inches of backspacing.

A PPE Xcelerator programmer boosts the power substantially and a turbo-back MBRP dual exhaust with black ceramic coating and big, 5-inch tips gets the spent exhaust gases out of the combustion chambers.

Gabriel tells us he's thinking of building a new medium-duty truck, like a Kodiak 4500 or a 3500 dualie. We're sure it will be just as clean, if not more so.