What does it take to get a 1992 Cummins-powered Dodge Ram 250 back on the road after 310,000 miles and 20 years of sitting idle? As it turns out, not much.

Jacob’s Dodge RAM 250 was custom-ordered by his grandfather in 1992. Thirty-three years later, it’s still on the road and helping the family get things done. If you ask Jacob, he’ll call it a workhorse, and for the truck’s first act, that phrase had a deeper meaning. 

Jacob’s grandfather needed a vehicle that would pull horse trailers. In this Dodge RAM powered by a 12-valve Cummins, he found the perfect match of reliability, power and performance that would allow him to transport horses from point A to point B, many times, with the Rockies standing between him and his destination. 

“When you’re hauling horses, you can’t fail,” notes Jacob. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to get home. We relied on Cummins to get us and our horses where we needed to be.”

Jacob moved to Indiana in the 2000s, and after his grandfather passed, the truck sat idle in California for nearly 20 years. Finally, Jacob had the opportunity to bring the truck home and get it back on the road.

Jacob tells it this way. “We didn’t know what to expect, and there was only one way to find out. As a mechanic, I made sure it was in working order. I changed the fluids, but there’s no substitute for turning the key. We dropped in a new battery…and would you believe it fired up after just a handful of cranks. It was almost anti-climactic. It worked. We had to replace some hoses and tires, but the engine was sound.”

Since 2024, Jacob’s been using the truck to haul a different kind of horsepower…drift cars. As a technician and racer, you can find Jacob trailing cars across the Midwest from track to track along the circuit. 

“I’ve always been a guy who could turn a wrench. It started in high school and now it’s my profession. I still love getting under the hood and working on a Cummins diesel, especially the first gen. You can really get in there and work. The simplicity and the powerful, straightforward design mean there’s a purpose behind the engineering. It’s how they’ve built a reputation for million-mile engines. At 312k, I think this truck has a chance. I won’t be behind the wheel, but my 4-year-old son has already fallen in love with this truck.”

Jacob understands the high-mileage fraternity at Cummins. “It’s something else to see these trucks still on the road…and that’s not all, most of them aren’t making runs to the grocery, they’re doing work. Why not celebrate the time you spend with something this special? I’ve still got all the papers from the original sale, the numbers all match, and it’s sort of fun to tell this story. It’s good to see something built to last. It just shows that when you engineer the quality from the beginning, keep up with the general maintenance, you can get an incredible life out of a Cummins-equipped vehicle. Heck, I’m excited about handing this truck down, and I won’t be surprised if it outlives me. I guess it’s just another step in this truck’s legacy.” 

A legacy birthed by Cummins.