Shop Monkey Rundown
Shop Monkey Rundown
World, I would like to introduce you to the Shop Monkey, our 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 6.6L four wheel drive High Country pickemup truck. It’s orange! Think of the brightest orange possible. I take that back. Think of the most violently over the top borderline just graphic orange you can imagine then put a pair of orange tinted glasses on and that will be roughly one percent of the brightness of our shop truck. Orange AF is what I call it when children aren’t around. This machine is wrapped tip to butt in a matte orange vinyl wrap. Is it pretty? Absolutely not. Does it look outrageously badass? YES! Does it get your attention? Again, YES! It has roughly the same effect as a bug zapper for mosquitoes. It draws you in. You cannot look away. Closer and closer you approach, slowly but steadily. You bathe in its glow, illuminating the atmosphere, you’re captured. You are close enough to touch it. Do you dare? Hell yes brother. You immediately feel the energy. You are part of this now. And ZAP! You’ve been electrocuted by the latest and greatest theft deterrent. Just kidding.
Upon further inspection you may notice that this truck is an inch or eight higher than most other trucks of this make and model. This is brought to you by Readylift Suspension. We installed their eight inch kit with the Falcon 1.1 shock upgrade. Let me tell ya, they’re great Falcon shocks and they provide a great Falcon ride. It’s so Falcon smooth and absorbs nearly all the Falcon bumps in the road. To further improve the Falcon ride on this unit the kit includes Readylift’s Xtreme Duty Fabricated upper control arms. One word comes to mind describing these bad boys, girthy. Yeah I said it, girthy. Because this is a heavy duty truck we need heavy duty parts, including but not limited to heavy duty BJ’s. On a project like this you cannot afford to have teeny tiny, weak, no effort put forth whatsoever BJ’s. That would be unacceptable. These control arms provide durable, long lasting BJ’s which is really all anyone can ask for. They’re designed for heavy loads on rough roads and they are sure to meet and exceed all expectations. To say that every aspect of this kit is top notch would be an understatement. From packaging to powdercoat to performance they build confidence as a seller, installer and end user. The fit and finish on all components is second to none and it is for all these reasons that this kit ended up on our shop build.
“How is a normal human being supposed to enter this exceptionally orange vehicle?” you may be asking yourself. Just open the door and you will be greeted with the industry leader in deployable powersteps. AMP BABY! The Amp Research Powersteps help you overcome the challenge of looking cool getting into a cool truck that spends its existence several feet higher than most. They are a must have accessory because there are few things in this life worse than rumbling bumbling and stumbling into the driver seat of a majestic ride such as this.
On to the next order of business! Wheels and tires! Hostile Fury in 22×14 because if it’s gonna be big, it’s gotta be wide too. If anyone says otherwise they’re lying or being nice. We wanted a stylish wheel that says “hey, I’ll be your cool new step dad.” They’re balanced without being busy. They’re classy without requiring much maintenance. They’re like someone you can take home to the family and that family has no idea about the true capabilities to handle raw power and leave the smell of burnt rubber lingering in the air. We have them wrapped in 38×13.50 Nitto Trail Grapplers because again, girthy. You cannot skip leg day. YOU MUST NOT SKIP LEG DAY! The shopping cart look is a no go. You do not want your truck to look like Yosemite Sam. Yeah I said it. The Nitto name has been in the game a long damn time and with such longevity comes a reputation for performance, personality and passion. These tires check all the boxes required by Off-Road king for this build. We needed quality. Check. We needed reliability. Boom. Last but not least we needed good looks. Take it from me, an expert in good looks, these things are a ten. A Falcon ten!
We put bumpers on this thing too. Starting with the business in the front we have from Addictive Desert Designs their Stealth Fighter model of bumpers. How cool of a name is that? Stealth Fighter. This thing is winch mount capable, which we also installed, shout out to Superwinch a tried and true in the offroad game for fifty plus years. The ADD bumper also has the option of either a 40” radius led light bar or ten 2” led cube lights. Of course we went the latter route and jammed ten lights in there. Cody was super pumped to have had to wire up ten lights rather than one. He said a word but it’s not something I can type here. It rhymes with the word truck so use your imagination. For the party in the back we stuck with Addictive Desert Designs and installed their Bomber rear bumper. Again,even the names are badass.
For lighting we went with the Rigid Industries 2” Radiance pod lights with the white backlighting. These lights are crisp, clear and nigh indestructible. Check out their torture test on the youtube. LED Light Bar Torture Test – Rigid Industries Told ya. For lighting on the undercarriage we went with Oracle RGB rock lights mostly because it looks cool. There is some practicality to having eight led lights bathing the ground in a myriad of colors. We also used Oracle’s magnetic rock light mounts to make ease of installation much easier. These mounts are rated to hold up to 40 pounds and brother, we tested that out by picking up every random piece of metal in the shop because boys will be boys. They nearly pulled out Blake’s belly button ring, he was not amused.
So there you have it folks. Just a little run down of the Off-Road King truck we affectionately refer to as the Shop Monkey. High quality truck with high quality parts installed with high quality skills. And the answer to your question is yes, she is for sale! So give us a holler if this machine speaks to you and causes an itch that you absolutely must scratch by modifying, accessorizing and improving whatever wheeled wonder you find yourself in the driver seat of. K love you bye.
Parts included in this build...
ReadyLift Suspension
2020-2022 CHEVROLET/GMC 2500HD/3500HD 8IN LIFT KIT WITH FALCON 1.1 SHOCKS
$2251.728
Addictive Desert
20-C CHEVY SILVERADO 2500/3500 STEALTH FIGHTER FRONT BUMPER
$2688.816
Addictive Desert
20-C SILV/SIERRA 2500/3500 HD BOMBER HD REAR BUMPER
$1828.392
Rigid Industries
RADIANCE POD WHT BACKLIGHT /2 BLACK
$162.893
Amp Research
AMP Research PowerStep Electric Running Boards
$1499.99
Oracle Lighting
ORACLE BLUETOOTH + RF COLORSHIFT UNDERBODY ROCK LIGHT KIT-8 PCS
$242.96
Oracle Lighting
PARTS & ACCESSORIES
$13.40
