Day 7
12:30 a.m.: The truck was finally supporting its own weight. Toby was busy building the mounts for the track bar. Notice the way this bracket grabs two complete sides of the frame. This is a point where every inch of weld counts.
1:07 a.m.: The lower track-bar mount was also burly. Toby was even able to add a cool-guy hole to tie everything together.
3:00 a.m.: 13 people were still present, with a swarm of activity at every corner of the truck. Four volunteers were under the truck scouring every metal surface with Scotch Brite pads, two others were peeling off remnants of the old original vinyl wrap. Toby was busy at the lathe, building a makeshift rear driveshaft, and editor Robin was clearing a spot in the stock front bumper for the Acro HID lights.
3:10 a.m.: We owe a big debt of gratitude to the guys at Right Axle and Gear of Salinas, California. These guys gave up a Friday night to lend a helping hand to the project.
7:48 a.m.: Only two people remained at the shop through the early morning hours, focusing on minor details like wrapping insulation, greasing Zerk fittings and hooking up miscellaneous wiring. When Toby arrived at 9:15, the countdown to fire-up began. Several failed attempts to start the engine led us to believe we had some kind of electrical problem. The minutes turned into hours. Before we knew it, our friend Jack was waiting patiently outside with his trailer, ready to make the eight-hour drive to Las Vegas. It was 8:15 p.m. The truck didn't run, the hydraulic steering was plumbed backwards, and the shocks still didn't have nitrogen in them. At this point, we decided to wait until we got to Vegas to make our last-minute fixes, so we loaded the Titan onto the trailer using a forklift. We called ahead to Toby's lead man Nick, who had just arrived in Vegas via airliner, with instructions to troubleshoot the Titan the first thing in the morning.
As good a mechanic as they come, Nick was able to get the truck running within an hour of its arrival in Las Vegas. He also swapped the hydraulic hoses so that the truck would steer correctly. We never did pressurize the Shox before the show. The truck received an outrageous vinyl wrap in the early-morning hours shortly before check-in time. The design was pure magic, courtesy of Ape Wraps. With the truck positioned on a ramp in front of the main entrance to the Las Vegas Convention Center, all the hard work was finally justified - the public's response to the Titan was overwhelmingly positive.