Kansas YouTuber’s Backwards Dodge Ram Turns Heads and Confuses Cops

Westen Champlin, who runs a YouTube channel known for solving truck problems with Cummins power and a plasma cutter, has taken on a bizarre new project: a second-gen Dodge Ram with its cab and bed flipped end-for-end. The result is a truck that looks like it’s driving in reverse at highway speed, even though it’s moving forward normally.

Champlin paid $7,000 for two vehicles from Oklahoma, a gas-powered Ram paired with a 12-valve Cummins diesel. He wanted the diesel, and the gas truck came along in the deal. At his 52-acre Horsepower Labs facility in Kansas, he detached the cab and bed, rotated them 180 degrees, and bolted them back on facing the opposite direction.

The chassis and drivetrain stayed in place, so the exhaust stack now exits through what looks like the front, the driver sits where the rear seat used to be, and shifting into reverse makes the truck appear to lurch forward.

The build was messier than it sounds. The rear axle’s frame height didn’t match the front suspension geometry, so the cab sat several inches too high at first. Champlin used a sawzall, a plasma table from Fast Cut CNC, and a hammer to fix it. The dash was rebuilt in aluminum, steering was rerouted, and pedals were relocated.

The truck is said to be road legal, with working lights, turn signals, plates, and insurance, but it lacked windshield wipers when it left the shop, which sparked some internal debate.

Champlin predicted he’d get pulled over “at least 20” times on a 50-mile drive to a Texas Roadhouse in Wichita. The first stop came before he left his own street. Local officers recognized him, took photos, and let him go, with one saying he’d be impressed if Champlin made it to Wichita without another stop.

He did make it, drawing stares, a spontaneous race with a pickup driver, and even a convoy with two broken-down Lamborghinis. Cops drove past without stopping him. Champlin said the truck drives like a normal pickup. 9-liter 12-valve Cummins diesel, rated at 160 to 215 horsepower depending on the year, stays in its original spot and powers the same drivetrain as before.

9 million likes. Champlin’s line to the first officer who stopped him, “You’ve got it all backwards, officer”, likely didn’t help his case.