From Grandfather To Grandson, A Former Service Truck Gets New Life

In 1991, Lynn Romberger bought a new W250 Dodge with a Cummins under the hood. The truck served several years as an appliance service truck until Lynn thought it was time to retire his trusty workhorse. Rather than off it to some stranger, Lynn chose to hand the truck down to his grandson, Dan. It was a perfect fit for the 23-year-old truck driver from York, Pennsylvania, who is familiar with diesel engines.

Dan got into pulling when he started hooking up antique tractors to the sled. When his grandfather gave him the W250, he already knew exactly what he was looking to do with it. Dan, Trent and Dale Young of Young’s Farm Service and Repair in Windsor, Pennsylvania, took the old Dodge from zero to 2.6 class hero over a couple of pulling seasons.

Rather than keep the original engine, Dan went for a 12-valve out of a ’96 Dodge. The head was pulled off the 5.9L before it was sent to Warrior Engine in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, where it spent hours on the flow bench being ported and polished to optimum airflow. Warrior Engine also custom-cut the valves and fitted the head with custom valve springs. Young Farms and Service Repair dropped the head back onto the block and stabbed in a specially ground camshaft from Bullet Cams, then topped off the valvetrain with custom rockers arms and lifters.

Aspiration is one of the most interesting parts of Dan’s truck. High Tech Turbo made a custom 66 charger in a 16cm housing for Dan. Sitting on top of an HTT exhaust manifold, the HTT turbo, with its specially tweaked internals, moves air at 80 psi through an air-to-water charge air cooler. The water lines for the system are run inside the cabin of the truck where the water passes through coils in a Rubbermaid cooler. The charge air cooler is protected from exhaust heat by a custom heat shield made from diamond plating.

For fuel, the Cummins relies on 5×22 injectors fed by a FASS system. On the exhaust side, custom 5-inch piping takes the spent fumes from the hot side of the turbo to the black 5-inch stack sticking out of the bed. Attached to the Cummins is a Young’s Farm and Service Repair-prepped five-speed transmission with a Southbend clutch.

Dan and Young’s Farm and Service Repair made as many custom components under the body as they did under the hood. The driveshafts are on-off pieces with a 4-inch tube in the rear and 3-inch in the front, both with oversized U-joints. The rear traction bars and bracing were home-built, as were the lockers in both the front and rear differentials. Also stiffening up the rear suspension are eight-ply leaf springs. When it came to rolling stock, Dan gets his grip from 285/75 BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires mounted on black 16-inch American Racing Wheels.

When Dan took possession of the truck, the body looked every second of its 15-plus years of age. Rather than get crazy with the  custom paint, Dan chose to keep things simple, having Young’s Farm Service and Repair straighten out the body before applying the blue DuPont hue. All of the factory metal was either refinished or replaced to maintain the retro look.

With the weight rack removed, the front of the Dodge looks almost bone-stock, with the exception of the air intake. Look at the rear and it’s a different story, and it’s not just the Lund bed cover. Young’s Farm Service and Repair made a custom rear bumper to prevent damage to the rear of back of the W250 in case of a sled mishap. The tailgate was also a custom piece fabricated from diamond plating.

The interior is on the simple side, still equipped with the original bench seat, and is without the factory carpet. Switches in the dash control the electric fans and the water for the charge air cooler, while ISSPRO gauges for exhaust gas temperature, fuel pressure and boost sit on the dashboard. Down by the shifter is another trio of gauges from Sunpro, and the Auto Meter tachometer on the dash relays engine speed and informs Dan on the maximum rpm of his pull.

From grandfather to grandson, Dan has not only kept the family truck alive, he’s brought a new look and fresh heart to it. It’s not pulling antique tractors, but the W250 makes for a fun rig to hook up to the sled in the 2.6 class. UDBG

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