The guys at Jalopnik found this monster on ebay and decided to put it on display for all to see. The owner is trying to sell this modified '93 F-350 for a listed price of $65,000 but we're guessing he'll take much less. The ad also mentions he'll consider any and all trades.

The big truck is a true 6×6, as the owner uses a second transfer case as a splitter, sending two driveshafts to each of the rear axles. The truck sits on a custom air suspension that allows for a five- and/or six-inch lift allowing for six 42-inch Mickey Thompson's under each fenderwell.

Feel free to contact the owners after you read more about the truck and see more photos by clicking here.

Imagine if you had an on-board tank in your truck where you could get clean water whenever you needed it. It would be great for camping and remote fleet operations, and it would be especially helpful for military use.

The technology uses the heating and cooling done by an exhaust system to condense water vapor, then collects it in a usable containment system. Other benefits of pulling the water from the exhaust gases include cleaner emissions.

The video below is a bit of a Borla commercial, but it has some great info about the possible uses of the existing technology.

Motive Industries, a global design company in Canada, has a new idea for a completely composite-body midsize pickup truck.

Internally code-named Bison, the design truck is meant to be a showcase for potential clients that might be interested in a design that lends itself to hybrid powertrains, battery storage capability or other future-tech modes of transport. This concept is a shell designed to show Motive's ability to develop a unique pickup design to work with the next and best industry powertrains, renewable fuels or emerging materials and technologies. Starting with a ground-up design, the engineering involved to package the batteries and powertrain isn't compromised by any pre-existing chassis.

The Bison boasts a bed size that's 75 inches long, 52 inches wide and 21.5 inches tall, closer in cargo dimensions to the much-larger full-size short bed. Motive says the ground clearance of the design is 9.5 inches, but that would likely vary depending on what powertrain or suspension package a manufacturer prefers.

As to construction, Motive believes there are many benefits to a composite-bodied pickup. The first being it's lightweight. Using carbon fiber over steel can reduce weight by as much as 50 percent, whereas fiber glass would offer only a 30 percent weight reduction.

Second, composite-bodied vehicles can have a profitable low to medium production run between 500 and 25,000 vehicles. One of the largest differences in producing a vehicle like the Bison is in the tooling investment required for stamped steel versus composite. In many cases, the costs for composite tooling can be a fraction of similar stamped-steel tooling.

A 100,000-unit production run — or the idea that to make a profit, many manufacturing execs don't want to consider any new models that can't potentially sell 100,000 units per year — is, in many ways, becoming difficult to manage as manufacturers struggle to keep up with developing technology and erratic market trends. Motive hopes to enlighten manufacturers about the benefits of a vehicle that can have a much lower production run and still make a profit.

Here's what Motive says about the Bison:

“The overall design character is sporty and assertive, communicated by its wide front-end graphic elements and aggressive wheel arches. The geometrical and angular form language, along with wedge profiles throughout, evolves the typical square pickup form into something much more modern and provocative.

“The Bison is targeting the 25- to 35-year-old consumer or the progressive company requiring utility fleet vehicles who wants to make a statement. The stance is important to convey stability and power.

“The Bison's two-tone 19-inch wheels shod in aggressive tread are pushed out to the corners of the truck, providing a long wheelbase. Inserts in the wheels can be body color or a tech-looking opaque Lexan for an EV edition.

“Charcoal-colored polymer bumpers are durable and designed to deal with the tough fleet/commercial use in the field. Side step panels are incorporated into the rockers. The panel break up along the bumpers and rocker panels help to visually lighten the truck along with the rising cutout feature in the rocker. This rise in the rocker is a common design feature coming from Motive's design ethos, influenced by the waistlines of athletic animals like a horse or greyhound. It helps to visually lighten the body, but accentuate the 'chest' or engine bay area of the vehicle.”

The design does have a futuristic quality to it and a unique look, and it offers a small echo toward the new Ford Ranger, which recently debuted in the Far East. There was no word on what type of suspension the vehicle might have, what cab features could exist or what kinds of special bed options or cab pass-throughs may be available as part of the design.

It's our guess the global design is not likely to capture the eye of any of the U.S. small-truck makers, but this could be something very interesting to a potential Chinese car company looking to make some inroads to the Australian market and possibly into Thailand. For more on the company and the design, click here.

If you haven't seen it yet (and I know many have already), you'll see the Chevy Silverado Super Bowl commercial pretty early on during the festivities on big-game Sunday.

For what it's worth, we predict it will get the most attention during the Big Game for not being the one that tries to look like last year's Darth Vader Mini-Me or any of the several 30- or 60-second spots using animals doing stupid human tricks.

“The Apocalypse” has the Chevy Silverado busting out of the rubble of a collapsed civilization, surviving the resulting Armageddon-like destruction like a well-protected armored tank. In fact, as the driver and his dog drive throgh the catastrophic landscape, we learn the only survivors at the end of the world look to be both old and new Chevy pickup drivers, leaving Ford guys out of luck.

If this were a boxing match, there is a point in the latter stages of the commercial where Chevy takes a roundhouse swing at Ford and lands it cleanly on the chin. It's one thing to imply a smack-down at your competition; it's something else to directly call them out. It should be interesting to see how Ford responds.

The spot ends with an implied good news/bad news message: Sure, you made the right truck choice to survive The Apocalypse; unfortunately, it doesn't look like many women made the same choice in pickup trucks you did.

GM made a pretty big play at the 2012 Super Bowl. Chevy had this high-dollar/high-tech commercial while GMC is the title sponsor for the huge-tent NFL Experience for attending fans in Indianapolis. For more info, click here.

The 2012 Ram Cargo Van makes a strong value play in the small-business segment, where large and small vehicles need to work especially hard for their owners. The Class 1 arena in the U.S. has relatively few competitors — think the Ford Transit Connect — but it is getting more attention as gas prices and overall cost of ownership become important priorities for companies look to create cost savings for customers.

Pound-for-pound, the Ram C/V is just about the strongest value choice we’ve driven in a long while, pickup or van.

Base C/Vs start just under $23,000 and come equipped with the new 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6, rated at 283 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 260 pounds-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm. The base model includes the new six-speed transmission.

EPA fuel economy ratings are 17 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway; however, during our test drive, our real-world fuel economy averaged closer to 21 mpg in combined driving around town and on a long-haul trip.

Mechanically, the C/V’s greatest strength is how well the transmission is quick to sense how to efficiently pull through the gears under loaded or empty conditions. Shifts are smooth and steady in normal modes and seem to adjust slightly with more throttle input. Also, we found having the transmission shifter on the dash — a comfortable reach from where your right hand rests on the steering wheel — was hugely convenient when shifting manually. It’s a quick tap to the left or right to go up or down the gears as needed.

Another strength of the C/V, appropriately enough, lies in the cavernous storage area. Our test unit came with the standard aluminum flat floor that offers almost 150 cubic feet of cargo space, big enough to hold a good-sized refrigerator or a washer and dryer set. The floor is 48 inches wide at the wheel wells and almost 7 feet long — almost the size of a long-bed pickup truck. It’s worth noting that a Deluxe Load option included several storage door openings in the floor that allow access to the rear and midsection cubbies under the floor.

Much like a good pickup truck, the payload rating on the C/V is 1,800 pounds. Our unit weighed 4,250 pounds with our 20-gallon tank full, giving us a gross vehicle weight rating of 6,050 pounds. Factory specs also have the C/V’s tow rating (when properly equipped; ours was not) at a class-leading 3,600 pounds. For those keeping track, that gives us a gross combined weight rating of 8,750 pounds.

If these numbers don’t sound like the typical minivan rating, you’re right. We’re told Ram Truck engineers worked long and hard to get the right front and rear spring rates set properly to allow for a good carrying capacity as well as offer better slower-speed control. In fact, the front springs are 44 percent stronger than its Dodge Grand Caravan twin, and the front springs are 37 percent stronger.

As you might expect, when driving the C/V around town empty, the rear end is a bit bouncy and light, especially when moving over rough roads or hitting speed bumps. However, because the vehicle is front-wheel drive and has more weight in the back with the closed rear sections, there isn’t the same twitchy feel that sometimes accompanies an empty-bedded rear-drive pickup truck.

Ram allows C/V buyers to order black-out windows, which gives the doors and side panel some added strength but, more importantly, makes it impossible for outsiders to see what type of valuable cargo might be inside the van. We should note that not having full visibility through the rear windows takes some getting used to, but the backup camera, included in the $1,390 Media Center Nav Package, made it quite easy to see all things behind us when backing up. We did wish we could continuously access a rearview screen like many motorhomes do to help keep track of what’s going on behind the van. It would be a good idea to offer bigger optional side mirrors when equipped with black-out window panels.

For something called a “cargo van,” it might be a little odd to talk about the front seating area, but it deserves it. This is not your typical Spartan commercial interior setup when driving a cost-first workhorse. Let’s be honest: A lot of times it’s not the boss driving a vehicle like this, so comfort and amenities are typically not high on the order list. However, to its credit, the C/V’s interior is much more like a minivan than a commercial stripper model. Dash layout and materials are just as you’d expect in a well-equipped Caravan, with dual glove boxes, good-quality console, instrument panel and door materials, and quite comfortable seats. Our test unit came with the optional $200 eight-way adjustable driver’s seat with an adjustable lumbar support — worth every penny. If this is the vehicle you have to do an eight-hour shift in or over a long-haul transportation route, we’re guessing your back will be just fine at the end of the day.

Standard features in the C/V include air conditioning with dual-zone climate control, an instrument cluster with a normal speedometer and tachometer, outside temperature display, an overhead console, A-pillar grab handle, 120-volt auxiliary power outlet, 12-volt front and rear area DC power outlets, interior air filtering, auxiliary audio jack for mobile devices, cloth low-back bucket seats, door courtesy lamps, driver and passenger visors with mirrors, map lamps, cargo rearview mirror, liftgate flood lamp, lower panel storage and cupholders, dual sliding doors with alert warning, power locks, power front windows, cruise control, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, tilt/telescoping steering wheel and variable intermittent windshield wipers.

Safety features include active head restraints, advanced multistage front airbags, four-wheel-disc antilock brakes, Latch child-seat anchor system, driver’s knee airbag, electronic stability control, keyless entry with immobilizer and a tire pressure monitoring system.

Our test unit came with only a few options that included the Uconnect multimedia system ($690), side airbag curtain delete (-$150), full-width cargo divider ($450), eight-way power driver’s seat ($200), media/entertainment system ($1,390), Mopar wireless hotspot ($650) and $835 destination fee. The total of our Stone White test unit was $26,680 (Download Ram CV monroney).

Considering what you get for the money, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything this well equipped and capable of carrying this kind of load in a lockable environment. Think of it as an awesomely priced regular cab pickup truck that you can lock all your valuables in and even sleep inside (fully stretched out) if you need to, comfortably protected from rain and snow.

Creative solutions can save a lot of money, and if you happen to be building light-duty and heavy-duty pickup trucks for GM, those savings can run into the millions of dollars. Josh Cable of Industry Week magazine recently toured GM's truck assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., and he discovered that when heavy-duty production was brought to the light-duty pickup plant in early 2010 (due to the bankruptcy reorganization), the team on site had to figure out how to incorporate heavy-duty production on a line that wasn't big enough to handle the larger truck lengths.

The biggest challenge was how to fit the bigger, heavier-duty trucks (which now would inlcude duallys) in paint booths that were only long enough to hold the shorter, lighter-duty full-size. The solution was as simple as swapping long beds to regular cabs and short beds to extended cabs, then matching them back up with the right vehicles later in the assembly process. Likewise, painting dually long-bed boxes was solved by restructuring the process so painting could be done partially disassembled.

These less traditional methods likely saved GM tens of millions of dollars in redesign and retooling costs at the Fort Wayne plant, and they ultimately helped GM invest that “found” money someplace where they more desperately needed it. For more details and information about the Fort Wayne truck plant in this article, click here.

We're not sure if we had anything to do with it, but the body of jury members that chooses the North American Car of the Year and North American Truck of the Year has recently announced it will change the criteria for the latter award.

As you recall, the jury, made up of 50 U.S. and Canadian journalists, got into some hot water this year by awarding the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque (from a few other unibody crossover finalists) as the North American Truck of the Year. That didn't make a lot of sense to many of us who know about and care about such things, not the least of which the actual definition of a “truck.”

Now they've announced they are changing the name of the award to the more appropriate North American Truck/Utility of the Year, and they've also decided to include more than just half-ton models. The rationale for keeping the heavy dutys out in the past was the idea that those vehicles were typically used for commercial use. (Do I smell elitism or just ignorance?) We didn't think that made much sense two decades ago when they invented the award, and it certainly doesn't make much sense now, so we're happy to see the change.

Still, we have concerns. If the jury didn't have members on the selection committee that should have brought up this issue long ago, what confidence should we have the jury will have anyone who knows how to judge or compare anything other than cars and crossovers? I suppose we'll have to wait and see and hope for the best.

The criteria change is a good first step, but the proof will be in next year's finalists and eventual winner to be announced at the 2013 Detroit auto show.

Ram Truck just announced it will continue its connection with country music by creating a “Road to the Ram Jam” concert series that will allow fans to see their favorite country artists up close and register for a drawing to win gifts and prizes.

Five concerts are scheduled this year, plus a year-end invitation-only Ram Jam concert in December.

The first officially announced concert will be with “American Idol” alum Kellie Pickler, who will get the use of a fully loaded Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn for the year that will be auctioned off in 2013 with proceeds going to the USO, a nonprofit group dedicated to lifting the spirits of America's troops and their families. The remaining concerts will be announced throughout the year, with each performer given a new Ram truck for auctioning at the end of a 12-month run.

“The first thing I learned to drive was my grandpa's truck, so I'm definitely a truck girl,” Pickler said. “I'm excited to be part of Ram Truck's Road to the Ram Jam. We're going to have a lot of fun on that 'Road' — me and my Laramie. I'm also excited that we will be auctioning off my Ram truck at the end of the year to benefit our veterans in need.”

Fans can visit uso.org/warriorandfamilycare to see behind-the-scenes video footage of Pickler in her Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn as she discusses her love of trucks, her new album “100 Proof” and how she continues to show support for U.S. troops.

The Road to the Ram Jam sweepstakes runs through Sept. 30. Official rules and complete details are found at RamTrucks.com/RoadtoRamJam.

“Ultimate Factories” has aired since 2007. The program takes viewers inside factories worldwide, including those of Lego, Frito-Lay and Caterpillar. Each episode features the machines and people behind each factory's main product, featuring close-ups, breakdowns, interviews and side stories to show the sequence of events to build the product in the factory.

For more info (actually a commerical) about the episonde, click here.

In the affected vehicles, may be equipped with a full-size tire instead of a temporary spare tire. In these cases, the tire specifications listed on a placard affixed to the vehicle — listing the size and recommended cold inflation pressure for a temporary tire — are not correctly displayed. Owners can call Honda at 800-999-1009 or NHTSA’s hotline at 888-327-4236 for more info.