![](/aimages/articlestandard/dunes/062006/306083/2798_jump_med.jpg)
Tom Franks, owner of Colorado Sand Cars, has
been building sand cars since 1999. He became a Tatum dealer in
2000 and has built several sand cars from long travel, mini rails
to 4 seat rails. A few years back Tom decided to make a sand truck.
He is a small family run shop and does not want to be the biggest
car builder out there, just concentrate on high quality and
service. We met up with Tom at the Gordons Well area of the
Imperial Sand Dunes over the New Years holiday and had a closer
look at his sand trucks.
Some of his truck features are: 100% chromoly chassis and
suspension components, a-arm front suspension and trailing arm rear
suspension, 4L60E auto transmission, engine of your choice (usually
an LS1 or LS2), limited slip Ford 9” rear end, Fox Shox
(coil-over and bypass), and either a Chevy or Ford fiberglass
body.
![](/aimages/articlestandard/dunes/062006/306083/2583_underhoodsm.jpg) |
![](/aimages/articlestandard/dunes/062006/306083/2585_bedsm.jpg) |
Under the hood.
Notice the chain steering! |
The bed of the
truck. |
![](/aimages/articlestandard/dunes/062006/306083/2610_topmed.jpg)
The Colorado Sand trucks weigh in at around 2800 pounds
and have 26” of front wheel travel with 28” in the
rear. They come in a 3-seat configuration with the rear seat
sitting in the center of the truck. You can order a basic kit up to
a full turnkey truck. Prices range from $14,500 up to $65,000 with
4 different level packages to suite the customer.
![](/aimages/articlestandard/dunes/062006/306083/cab_2588sm.jpg)
While strapping into the passenger seat, we first noticed
how roomy it is in the cab. Plenty of room, just like a full sized
truck. The built LS1 motor roared to life and we hit the dunes.
Heading out to the larger dunes, we first hit a nice section of
deep whoops. What whoops!? This truck soaked up the whoops at full
throttle like nothing. It felt like we were at top speed on a
smooth highway! Once in the dunes the truck handled great. High
speed turns and big jumps were no problem for this sand truck. The
auto transmission seemed like a nice feature since there is no
shifting involved. It put the power to the ground in a big
hurry!
![](/aimages/articlestandard/dunes/062006/306083/2614_roostmed.jpg)
Overall we were impressed with the Colorado
Sand truck. It’s nice to see a new design to hit the sand car
market. We stopped to take a few photos of Tom’s truck along
with one of his customers, Joey Sargent (all white) with a built
LS1 motored Sand truck.
www.coloradosandcars.com
633 Weld County Road 60
Windsor, CO 80550
970-674-9967
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