When a build gets down to the last 48 hours, the real test is whether every custom system works together. On LokJaw, that meant final-fitting the supercharged Duramax, aligning the belt plane, sealing the charge-air cooler inside the manifold, finishing suspension and bed structure work, and wiring everything from the starter and alternator to the transmission controller, airbag controller, and MoTeC electronics. One of the biggest engineering problems was driveline movement. The Allison 1000 normally uses a fixed yoke, but this truck needed a QA1 carbon fiber driveshaft that does not carry its own slip. The fix was a custom ATS-built Allison setup with a slip yoke in the transmission, so the suspension can move without binding the driveline. That is what SEMA crunch really looks like: not glamour shots, but solving packaging, fitment, and system integration problems fast enough to get a one-off truck out the door and onto the show floor.
The recap opens during the last days before SEMA, with LockJaw only three days from departure. By Thursday morning, the team was already in full crunch mode, loading tools and body tubs and making sure nothing critical was left behind before heading out. The project is identified as Banks Built, protected by AMSOIL, with support from Roadster Shop and Nitto, setting the context for a collaborative build effort under an extremely compressed schedule.
As the deadline approached, the pace intensified. What had normally been a one- or two-person fabrication area turned into a crowded, all-hands-on-deck workspace with roughly six fabricators working at once. The team repeatedly emphasized that the truck had to leave by Monday night for a Tuesday SEMA opening, and by Saturday they were already operating on minimal sleep, heavy caffeine, and the expectation of an all-nighter.
A large portion of the work centered on getting the chassis and supporting hardware assembled quickly enough to keep the build moving. The crew mounted the air-ride suspension solenoid pack and fabricated a nitrous bracket, fitting it to a crossmember. At the same time, they removed the factory seat brackets because the truck would be using new seats, making the original mounts unnecessary.
These jobs were not presented as isolated tasks but as part of a tightly sequenced assembly process. Multiple systems had to be installed in parallel so the truck could progress from a bare or partially assembled chassis into a complete rolling and wired vehicle. Even relatively small fabrication and mounting jobs mattered because any unfinished bracket or interference point could delay later work such as cab installation, wiring, or final plumbing.
The engine was installed into the chassis and mated to the Allison transmission, using a custom slip yoke from ATS during the process. The supercharger had initially been removed so the team could use proper lift points while lowering the engine into place. Once the engine and transmission were in the truck, attention shifted to reinstalling the supercharger as part of the final installation sequence.
After the supercharger was set in place, the team still had tune-up work to complete before it could be fully secured. Belt alignment was a major concern, and they described a specific procedure for dialing in the belt plane correctly. They also had to bring the charge-air cooler back into position so the face seals would properly seal the cooler inside the manifold. Only after confirming that the seals were seated and the belt plane was correct would they snug down the lid, tighten everything fully, and install the remaining fittings for the charge-air-cooler system. The emphasis here was on careful mechanical alignment rather than simply bolting parts together.
While drivetrain work continued, fabrication on the bed structure was also moving toward completion. The lower bed structures had previously only been tack-welded, and now the team was performing the final welding on the upper portions. Because time was short, they chose to weld all of the top-side features first and defer some of the bottom-side stitch welding until later. According to the fabricator, the structure was already more than strong enough for the application, so this sequencing decision was a practical compromise rather than a structural concern.
The welding focused on the tabs protruding through the top surfaces and on open corner joints throughout the structure. By Saturday, the middle two sections had already been welded, and work had shifted to the four outer wings. Finishing the last of those welded sections would allow the entire bed to be assembled for the first time as a complete unit, after which the team could begin making all of the pieces function together properly. This part of the build illustrates how much custom metalwork remained even in the final 48 hours.
One of the most technically significant elements of the build was the Allison 1000 six-speed transmission. The truck uses a highly customized Allison 1000, and the key modification was the addition of a slip yoke. In stock form, Allison 1000 transmissions use a fixed yoke, but LockJaw needed a driveline arrangement that would accommodate suspension movement while also using a specific carbon-fiber driveshaft.
The problem was that the desired QA1 carbon-fiber driveshaft did not include a slip section. With no slip in the driveshaft and no slip in the transmission, the driveline would have no way to accommodate suspension travel. To solve that, the team worked with Clint at ATS, who built a custom arrangement using a two-wheel-drive Allison tailshaft housing and a specially engineered slip-yoke setup. The transmission also received a 300M tailshaft as part of this custom solution. The result was a driveline that retained the required slip function inside the transmission assembly itself, enabling the use of the chosen driveshaft without sacrificing suspension movement.
The custom driveshaft supplied by QA1 was presented as another major engineering piece in the truck. It is a Rev Series carbon-fiber driveshaft built specifically for Banks Power's application. The shaft uses 1350 U-joints at both ends and measures 64 inches to fit LockJaw's layout.
The team also called out the material system, noting that the shaft uses a 3M matrix resin in the carbon-fiber construction. Dimensionally, it is 3.2 inches in diameter, which they contrasted with the roughly 5-inch driveshaft commonly found in a factory GM truck or Duramax application. Despite the smaller diameter, they stated that the QA1 shaft is capable of handling up to 2,000 horsepower. In context, this was not just a flashy component but a central reason the transmission had to be modified with the custom slip-yoke arrangement.
As mechanical assembly progressed, the electrical team and support staff were simultaneously routing and terminating the truck's wiring. One team member from electrical engineering described the effort as all hands on deck, with even people outside their normal departments helping wherever needed. Wiring began at the battery fuse area, then ran into the cab, back out under the cab, and forward again to support major systems including the starter and alternator.
Additional components being wired included the transmission controller under the cab, the airbag controller, the air-ride solenoid pack, and the PCS transmission actuator. Once the cab was scheduled to go back onto the truck, the next phase would be wiring everything inside the cab itself. The Motec ECM and power distribution module were being mounted in the glove-box area, while other wiring was routed along the transmission tunnel for systems passing through the floor. The team also identified the throttle pedal, brake pedal switch, safety switch, and battery safety cutoff as part of the interior integration work. The wiring was described as an organized rat's nest, which captures both the complexity and the controlled chaos of the final assembly stage.
The cab installation was a major milestone because so many remaining systems depended on it. The expectation was that the cab would be back on the truck within about an hour, after which interior wiring and controls could be finalized. At the same time, other team members were working on structural and suspension-related tasks, including a shock tower and the Ridetech suspension setup.
The air-ride system was still new territory for at least one of the mechanics, but the broader point was that the team was relying on general mechanical skill and adaptability to finish the truck under pressure. This section of the build shows how the project had moved beyond isolated fabrication jobs into full vehicle integration, where suspension, electronics, controls, and body structure all had to come together in the correct order.
By Saturday, the team openly acknowledged the physical toll of the schedule. One fabricator said he had slept only about 10 hours over the previous four or five days and had consumed enough caffeine to keep going through what was clearly becoming an all-night push. The essentials at that point were reduced to energy drinks, sugar, water, and the determination to finish. Despite the fatigue, the mood remained focused on execution rather than drama: weld the last bed section, assemble the bed, reinstall the cab, finish the wiring, and keep moving.
That effort carried through to Monday night in Las Vegas, when LockJaw was finally dropped off at the AMSOIL booth ahead of the SEMA show opening the next day. The final note was simple: after the delivery, the hope was that at least some of the team could finally get some sleep. The engineering story of this segment is less about a single component than about coordinated execution under deadline, with drivetrain customization, fabrication, wiring, suspension, and final assembly all converging just in time for the truck to make the show.