STARTING FRESH

James Mallios’ ’15 Ram 3500 can go farther down the trails than your average tow rig

- Jered Korfhage

“It was green with a tan interior,” James Mallios recalled as he described his first off-road experiences in the passenger seat of his dad’s Series 1 Land Rover Discovery. “Dad went to Land Rover rallies and we would wheel with Land Rover guys all day.” The young James couldn’t get enough of the trails and found even more enjoyment riding along in the Disco’s rear jump seats. Let’s fast-forward to the first four-by he could call his own: a ’98 Ford Ranger. “I couldn’t kill it; the truck would not die!” said James of the stone-stock Ranger he explored the backwoods of eastern West Virginia in during his free time in college. But he wanted something more than the Ranger could offer.

Enter a ’14 Ram 1500 and an increase in size, power, and cool factor. James added new wheels and tires, upgraded the suspension, and even upped the horsepower with a new intake under the hood. “It was almost built,” he told us, “and then someone totaled it. I had to start fresh.” James was T-boned at a high rate of speed by a small hatchback. The Ram’s frame was bent but James and company suffered no major injuries. “We walked away from that accident,” is the reason why his next truck was, indeed, another Ram.