When you try to picture who might drive a truck sporting a 12-inch lift, Brian Huff probably wouldn’t match the image you have in your head. As he puts it himself, both on Instagram and on his license plate, he’s just “a lil guy,” but what he may lack in stature, he more than makes up for in heart.
Brian describes himself as “that kid at the local grocery store or Walmart in the magazine aisle wondering what it took to build a SEMA truck.” He’s always been into trucks but what makes him a little different is that Brian has a pacemaker installed in his heart. It’s something he’s dealt with ever since he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure at only three months old. He says, “Every five years I go in for pacemaker surgery. It’s just like a routine. It’s just part of everyday life. I don’t take that as an excuse to not do something. I’m just like any other person. I have to be down from work and life for anywhere from 2-5 weeks after the surgery.”
Pacemakers don’t usually cause much in the way of complications—except for the battery replacement surgery Brian mentions, of course—but Brian views it as a motivation to make the most out of life. “That’s not an excuse for me to not do something,” he says. “I’ve never been like, ‘Oh, I have a pacemaker, I can’t do it.’ I just push myself until it happens. You gotta be willing to do whatever it takes. If you want something, you gotta go for it. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time, and who helps you along the way.”
Building It Up
His current truck, a 2015 Chevy 2500, was built in his hometown of Dumfries, VA, by Brett Lyons and Tyler Ansink at Lyons Automotive. This thing is a veritable monster. We mentioned the 12-inch Cognito lift already, but that is almost literally just the tip of the iceberg. Are you ready?
The base is a set of 24x14 Drop Star Forged F60 wheels in anodized blue with True Spiked lug nuts, wrapped in 40x15.50R24 Nitto Trail Grapplers. Next, there are Cognito tie rods and a set of Fox shocks and Napa Performance drilled and slotted brake rotor pads. His performance upgrades include a 5-inch Flo-Pro exhaust, and Edge Jammer cold air intake with an Edge CTS2 Evolution and tuning by PPEI. The exterior is jam-packed with upgrades, with a Royalty Core custom grille, Outlaw LED headlights, Bodyguard A2L Series front and rear bumpers, a Horn Blasters Conductor series train horn, an SBC roof rack, an ARE bed cover over a Bed Rug and UnderCover Swing Cases. FireWire LEDs are found all over the truck; there are four 10-inch lightbars on the roof rack, eight cubes on the roof, two 30-inch light bars on the front bumper, and six cubes between the front and rear bumpers. Monster Hooks accessorize the bumpers with a rear hook and front and rear swivel shacks. The interior sports a complete Road Wire leather kit in custom blue and black, as well as trim pieces that were hydrodipped by Limitless HydroGraphics in Texas. Finally, the wrap was done by Deluxe Garage and the window tinting was done by Dub IR.
By now you’ve noticed the word “Blasé” featured prominently on the truck. If you’re unfamiliar with that term, Merriam Webster defines it as “apathetic to pleasure or excitement as a result of excessive indulgence or enjoyment.” It’s meant to be ironic, because this truck is anything but. As Brian told us, “The twist is my truck is not just another SEMA truck. It’s the grocery-getter, daily-driven SEMA truck.”
Daily driver? You bet your bottom dollar. As crazy as it seems, Brian definitely drives this beast all the time. In fact, other people have let their curiosity at the truck get the better of them. Brian says, “Believe it or not, I have seen somebody look over and try to take a picture and get into an accident. I was at a stoplight and somebody looked over to take a picture while the light was going red. They hit the brakes but it was too late and they bumped the car ahead of them. People are always trying to see who’s in it because it’s so high.”