Family Time: Father and Son-Built 2011 Ram 2500HD
Most of the time father and son projects involve gardening, or painting a fence or some other such mundane work. Not this father and son project. Stephane Lariviere (the father) bought a 2011 Ram 2500HD and then partnered with his 16-year-old son Jordan to build it into The Black Beast.
Jordan was involved more than to simply hand a wrench to his dad and fetch a cold drink from the fridge. Jordan was an active participant in the entire project; in fact, he was the driving force. Jordan scoured magazines and the Internet looking for just the right combination of parts and he sought out sponsorships where he could find them. Jordan created a Facebook page for the truck (The-Black-Beast) and started a campaign to get the Ram into a national diesel magazine. He’s persistent and driven, and the project turned out exactly as intended… and now here it is in the pages of Diesel World for all the world to see.
Jordan was inspired by the success of his friend Shane Hayward (who’s project rig is named “Spoiled Nasty”) as he followed the build from beginning to end. Hayward taught Jordan a ton of things about the aftermarket truck parts world, introduced him to the right people, and showed him that you can achieve great things if you are willing to work hard.
The goal for the truck was to have a good, reliable powerful daily driver that could go off-road without any problems. The truck needed to be capable of towing the family fifth-wheel trailer to diesel event and races, and it had to look good too. To top it off, the Larivieres built the truck with their own two hands (well, four hands actually).
The father/son duo is Canadian, living in Amos, Quebec, a small town with extremely cold weather in the winter. In June and July the average temperature is a lovely 72 degrees (the yearly average is 44 degrees) but come January and February you will see negative temperatures with the record being -63 degrees. In weather like this you’d better pick your aftermarket parts carefully. That’s why Jordan spent so much time researching products and, in the end, chose the very best to add to The Black Beast.
The key to the build was getting the truck up in the air for ground clearance and to make room for 20-inch wheels and 35-inch tires. Jordan selected Rough Country’s 5-inch X-Series lift kit with the optional control arm drop bracket and adjustable control arms. Rough Country N2.2 shocks are on all four corners of the truck. A BDS Suspension triple front shock bracket was used to mount the fronts.
A Rough Country dual steering stabilizer with N2.0 shocks assist the steering perfectly. All of the suspension parts were sourced through Canadian truck parts dealer J&S Performance.
After the lift was done, the tires and wheels came next. Jordan selected KMC XD Series Badland 779 wheels and covered them with Mickey Thompson MTZ 35/12.5-20 tires.
Power is important to both Jordan and Stephane so they added a bunch of speed parts to the 6.7L Cummins engine. The Industrial Injection Silver Bullet 66/74/14 turbo is supported by Glacier Diesel Products’ Torker 75-hp nozzle injectors. A GDP S-3 intake manifold has a Nomex-reinforced boost tube and there’s also a GDP CCV open breather kit and Sinister EGR delete kit. A Snow Performance Stage 2 water/methanol kit keeps the EGT down and boosts power. ARP 625 head studs were installed to keep everything together. The transmission is stock with the addition of a trans unlock code.
This will not be Jordan’s last project, there’s no doubt about that. He’s in diesel tech school and already has a job working on big rigs. It’s safe to say that diesel may just be in his blood! DW
