MOUNTAIN CADDY

Matt Swithenbank’s Ford is good for snow, tow, and go (-ing fast)

- Jered Korfhage

“The only reason I got this truck in the first place was to tow my Toyota race truck around,” explained Matt Swithenbank. His thesis statement for the Ford evolved into wanting to have a truck that he could take anywhere and do anything with. Whether the task was hard-core snow wheeling in northern California, towing his trailer, journeying across Utah or the Baja Peninsula, or chasing desert races, the pickup had to be ready.

“I originally traded my ’00 4Runner for it when it was only a mostly stock ’94 F-250 IDI turbodiesel with the E40D transmission.” At the time, the truck ran around with a Dana 50 Twin-Traction Beam front suspension, a four-inch lift, and 35-inch tires. “Within the first year of owning the truck I was having issues with the engine and trans and made the decision to start collecting parts.” Matt began preparing for the Ford’s upgrades by first lifting a Cummins 6BT from a ’91.5 Dodge W250 with only 127,000 original miles. Next came a ZF S5-42 transmission out of a Ford F-550 propane delivery truck, and a smattering of gathered and fabricated parts to make the two powertrain components play nicely together.