Chevy C30 Dually Is a Reliable Hauler With Cummins Diesel Power
The goal with this amazing Cummins-powered 1978 Chevy C30 dually was to make it both capable and reliable, and we think they nailed it.
These days, many of the older, updated vehicles we come across are restomods designed to win awards at shows, with many selling for big bucks – and as such, they aren’t driven a whole lot. This seems a bit odd given the fact that the whole point of adding a modern powertrain, suspension, and other amenities to an older vehicle is to make it more reliable and comfortable to, well, drive. That’s precisely the case with this very cool 1978 Chevy C30 dually, which was built by the folks at Empire Fab with one purpose in mind – to rack up miles and serve as a workhorse.
In this video from AutotopiaLA, we get to take a close look at this Chevy C30, which owner Sean Ramage drove from Arizona to Los Angeles for this particular segment. The truck was just finished not too terribly long ago, and yet, it already has 4,000 miles on the clock, along with some rock chips and assorted road rash. It still sports its original two-tone paint covering the OEM body panels, however, though it’s been updated in pretty much every other way – including its dropped suspension and large wheels and tires.
To help make this big dually a more usable tow and highway hauling rig, it rides on a full air suspension, and it even self-levels when one adds a load in the back. It’s powered by a 24-valve Cummins diesel that’s a brand new, remanufactured unit sporting a Banks hot side turbocharger and ram intake, plus a custom water-to-air intercooler. It’s mated to an Allison six-speed transmission lifted from a newer Chevy pickup, which was selected specifically for towing purposes.
That powerplant churns out around 300 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque, which are modest numbers, yet perfect for a vintage tow rig that the owner wanted to be ultra-reliable as well. Empire Fab also added disc brakes to help slow the big rig down more effectively, even converting the factory Dana 70 rear end to accommodate those modern bits.
Overall, the goal was to keep this old square body looking largely original, and that theme continues inside the cabin, where it looks pretty stock, but sports some upgraded gauges and other goods. In that case, we’d say they nailed this particular build – and honestly, who would rather have a new workhorse than something old and cool like this?
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