Hey All, New here but have been following the case since it started and have been reading these treads almost non stop since yesterday and just got around now to registering. After reading most of the posts I thought I would share some info about the truck it self that may be of interest to some, I am a Dodge (Cummins Diesel) nut and know pretty much everything about them from 1989 when the Cummins diesel was first shoe horned under the hood right up to the current models which I actually just bought a few months ago.
Unlike any other make or model of truck these Cummin's powered trucks are different in that there are major motor changes in certain half years which can, and does make them very desirable. Here is a run down of some changes thru the years
1989-was the introduction of the 5.9L Cummins to the Dodge Trucks
1993.5 was the intro introduction to inline "P-pump" (diesel injection pump and is the most desirable of all the fuel systems)(this change was do to the EPA for emissions requirements)
1994 was the introduction of the new body style 2nd Generation trucks which still ran the "P-Pump" until 1998
1998-the body style stayed the same but they introduced the Quad Cab (4 doors instead of 2) This is the most rare of all Dodge Cummins trucks having the "quad cab" and the P-Pump and if you are lucky enough to have a 5 speed manual truck, that truck is known to all diesel nuts as the "holly grail" as the horsepower was increased for that 1/2 a year if it had a 5-speed manual transmission.
1998.5 was the introduction of a very undesirable injection pump called the VP44)(this change was do to the EPA for emissions requirements) the truck still had the 2nd Generation body
2003- was the change to the 3rd Generation body (the style of TB's truck) and again due to emissions changes the motor had a fuel system change to a "common rail, high pressure injection system. (there was issues in the first few model years of this generation with the drivetrain not holding up to the power of the motor and the later years are by far the most desirable)
2007.5-although the truck still had the 3rd Generation body, the entire motor was changed to something all new due to emission changes yet again. This new motor was the 6.7L Cummins Turbo diesel and had MANY MANY issues of the motor because of the emissions equipment of the truck and is probably the least desirable Cummins powered dodge trucks of all time.
2010-brought the current 4th Generation body style and a very revamped fuel/emissions system.
I am almost 100% sure that TB's truck was a 5.9L Cummins Diesel Powered 2007 Dodge just by the looks of the decals and minor appearance tweaks that were made that half year. That would make TB's truck one of the most desirable of all Cummins powered trucks due to the lack of emissions and if by chance his truck was a 6-speed manual transmission truck...it would be even more rare and even more desirable.
As soon as I heard the news about TB going missing and hearing the circumstances I honestly believed that his truck was stolen and was either being shipped to Europe or to Australia (every time I have put one of these Dodge Cummins trucks on Auto Trader I have received more calls from those to continents than I did from all of Ontario! and it is very well known that there is a HUGE theft ring of these trucks being stolen and shipped overseas and even more for the most desirable trucks such as those 1998 trucks or the 2007 trucks! I have heard of people paying 100k for these trucks in Europe and even more in Australia.....I still have a hunch that DM quite easily could have had connections in those rings and being a "Cummins guy" him self (his red truck was a 5.9 Cummins) he would know a thing or two about them. It is quite possible that the other truck DM and MS took for the test drive the day before was non a 2007 but a 2007.5 (the LE did say that the previous test drive was a newer model!) and if that truck wasn't on there hit list than it was no use going any further with it and they started to look elsewhere!
I am sure if this theory was true they had a chance to make some major fast money and would only have had to get TB out of the truck and a quick short trip to the container loading docks along the lake....TB being the guy he was and taking pride of his belongings probably put up a fight and that's where he met his fate.
As far as a few other answers to a few posts on here....
-These dodge trucks only have a bench seat in the rear...no bucket seats although the seat does flip up giving access to storage under the seat.
-As far as the incinerator goes...although it would need power to run the blowers and thermostat, the amount of watt's required to run it would be very minimal and there are VERY VERY quite gas generators available such as ones you will see RV's having that make next to no noise. With this combination, you would have a hard time hearing it run from even a few hundred feet away...put a wooded area into the mix and that distance would become even shorter!
Thanks for all the great info previous to this and lets hope an end to this madness happens soon and all those involved are behind bars!
RyeGuy#1