Las Vegas, Nevada - From inside the cockpit of the infamous raging Dodge Ram Cummins Turbo Diesel powered truck, is a story to be told. Mile-after-mile of pavement and endless kilometers of dirt road make up the foundation of the 200,000 mile logged tally. This abuse and more is why we affectionately call this truck, "The Desert Tank."

Raging across the desert from dawn-to-dusk in search of new adventure we've bounced cameras, laptops, coffee cups and more through the interior. Boy, that steering wheel could tell a story or two.

Like chasing down the Baja 1000 Class 21 Champions, DP Racing, to deliver their spare rear wheel and tire over 220 miles away. Other adventures as trouncing throughout the Baja Peninsula testing potential communications positions on far away mountain tops for race day. Toting trailers, so laden with so much weight, that we cannot discuss them here. That'd be down right incriminating.

All those miles.

All those stories.

All the dirt.

And now we have a whole lot more to add as The Desert Tank heads over the 200,000 mile mark. But not without a bit of W.A.M inserted during certain points of the adventure. You ask, "What the hell is W.A.M.?"

It's plain and simple.

W.A.M.= Walking Around Money!!!

Money that your wife, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend or significant other doesn't know about.

You got it! Just plain secret stash account to add aftermarket parts to that special off-road machine of yours.

New Wheels? Yep, they cost $150 dollars honey. Here's the receipt. You simple show her the receipt for the cash paid. The balance that was paid using W.A.M. that she'll never know about!

It's the only way to operate. If you're married, hooked up, got a steady or just plain have to report to someone, it's the only way to go!

Buried in the deep wet sand, providing rescue services to those in need or broadcasting to Off-Road.com from the most remote places in Baja. We serve the off-road community.

And only a few people know how much W.A.M has ever been spent on The Desert Tank. Ahhh, granted. A few companies have thrown in some goodies in exchange for a hardcore review, but most all the "other" stuff has been a result of extensive W.A.M.

And let me tell you...those Robby Gordon wheels were all W.A.M. That was a tough one to slide by The General. From coast-to-coast we have raged terror in the dirt and it's taken a lot of W.A.M. to get us by!!!

So you wonder, how are all those W.A.M. modifications doing? As expected, they continue to perform at maximum levels. And that's quite a testament to those many manufacturers producing the best in high-performance technology for Dodge products.

However, that's not without extensive research before we slam down that hard earned cash onto the sales counter of our local shop. I mean, you gotta do some homework before you spend that money.

Take for example the T-Rex Engineering Suspension System. Quite a bundle of cashola at $3500 dollars for the King Shock race-inspired technology. It didn't take long before we were buried in heaps of information about what Kent Kroeker and T-Rex Engineering were all about. We discovered they were the leaders in Dodge straight-axle suspension products and had developed relationships with those in the shock industry that are constantly developing new and improved products.

Translated to you guys who blast around in the dirt...that relates to, "They got their stuff together." And those are the aftermarket products that you want to lay down the hard cold cash for when the time comes.

So what have we spent some W.A.M on recently. The better question is what have we spent W.A.M on that came in handy.

Well, it just happens to be that waaaayyy back when, we spent a big chunk of W.A.M. on a brand new winch line. You know! One of those fancy rope like winch lines that they sell for a whole lot of money at the off-road shows. Yep, the one booth that sets up and has a huge amount of people looking and then they drop the hammer and tell you that winch line costs $580 dollars. You think...that's a whole lot of cash for a damn winch line that sits parked on the winch roller for about 360 days a year.

After much research we selected the M-P SUPERLINE. It is the newest, strongest and the most advanced synthetic winch cable yet. Its super strong inner core has been heated and stretched for optimum strength. Complete with a braided cover made of synthetic fiber giving the line even more strength and providing excellent abrasion resistance. The cover braid also protects the inner core completely from UV rays.

And best yet, M-P SUPERLINE has no kinks, no curls or wire splinters, floats, minimal weight, torque free, minimal stretch, minimal snapback if the line brakes, non-rotational, 45% to 65% stronger than same size wire cable, easy to coil and handle.

Yeah, what he said!!!

And yes, we asked ourselves. "Do we really need this super cool winch line?" Ahhhhh...what the hell, it's just W.A.M. right? Yipper!

Fastforward at 100 miles per hour. Perfect. Now we are at the 4th of July holiday weekend in 2004.

As we have so many times before, we were just cruising down the sands of Baja south of San Felipe, Baja California in The Desert Tank. With the warm azure waters lapping near The Desert Tank, we were putzing along when the struggle began.

"Ah, not this." we thought silently.

I shifted into high 4WD and poured a little bit of diesel power to the wheels.

And slowly we sank. Farther and farther and farther.

I thought, "Oh, we so know better than to do this. What the hell is up."

Farther and farther and farther.

Nice.

Now that the diff's on buried in the sand we are perfectly "STUCK!"

I think, "Stupid ass moron." (Now I hear some Desertbull fan clapping, I can hear them...LOL)

Peering around the solitude of the beach I wonder, "Do you think we can get the winch line all the way to that house over there? Nope."

Examining it closely I see that it won't reach. But with the extra straps and 80' feet of rope, I'm thinking we can reach.

Better than digging at this point.

The afternoon breeze was nil.

The temperatures were hovering around 98 degrees and the humidity was like the sauna at the gym.

I commented, "We were gonna make it reach no matter what!" Big words when you're buried deep.

Another 10 feet and we woulda' been screwed. Wrapped around the brick column supporting the porch of the beach house was the only decent strong hold I could find.

I pondered the choice of anchor positions once again and decided, this was it.

I looked at my pig of a truck buried in the sand readied for the Saturday afternoon pig roast and said, "Let's get it on boyz!"

Strapped up to a rickety Mexican beach house, we started real slow testing the waters as the weight of The Desert Tank took effect on the old porch. With my partner feathering the throttle, I controlled the winch remote as The Desert Tank began to slowly crawl out of hole made for a pig roast.

The Off-Road Tech Inc. bumper held tight and the Warn #12,500 winch slowly pulled the 9900lb pig from the depths of the soft beach sand. Inch-by-inch we made progress

A close inspection of the brick pillar, with one eye closed, revealed the no damage.

Well, we were lucky this time. It was merely 15 minutes of being stuck on the soft beaches of Baja. And that's nothing. Past experiences have left me on a beach for 2 days scratching my head.

The well spent W.A.M. came in handy and of course paid for itself in a single use. However, I do admit, that I've had to rely upon the winch and winch line previously.

Only because I tend to do things better in the dirt!

Keep your winch lines tight!