The story of the Big Daddy series trucks is that Mark III Industries, a company in Ocala, Florida just up the road from Garlits' museum approached him about building a series of trucks, using 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 trucks. The initial plan was to build 500 of them and sell them to collectors and enthusiasts around the country. However, Dodge was not able to provide that many trucks, so the plan then went to a limit of 200 trucks. Truck #1 was given to Big Daddy which he drove for exactly 10,000 miles while running for Congress back in the day, and then he put it in his museum on display until last year when he removed it from the museum and sold it to a collector. Truck #50 was a Ram 3500 SLT dually with a V10 engine in it. Unfortunately, the suspension was not heavy enough to pull Garlits' 40' Warrior enclosed trailer. The trailer was built extremely heavy duty and weighed a bunch! Don turned the dually back in to Mark III Industries and it was sold to a collector. It was understood that a heavier duty dually would be provided at a later date. As the trucks were converted in to the Big Daddy series trucks and sold, the production year was running out and Mark III was not going to get to 200 trucks by years end. As it turns out, truck #180 was the last truck built by Mark III, and that truck was a Ram 3500 dually with a V10 gas engine and a heavier duty suspension. That truck however was from the 1996 model year, and I believe it is the only 1996 model from that series (if I remember the story correctly from what Don told me back in 2004). I still have that truck today, and even though I live in Wisconsin, it has never been driven in snow or salt. Don put 147,000 miles on the truck when he owned it, pulling his Warrior trailer with his Swamp Rat Dragsters around the country to races and shows. I have towed Dons trailers around that country with that truck while working at events with him. I no longer drive the truck on a regular basis since buying my 2004 Dodge Ram diesel dually. The truck sits in heated storage. The truck is not the easiest on fuel with the V10, but it will pull a mountain flat. I am hoping to find other owners of these trucks through this forum and by word of mouth. When Mark III went out of business, I'm told all the documents and order information was destroyed by whomever took over the building that was occupied by Mark III.
