Ford Truck Turned Storm Chaser With Gull-Wing Doors Visits Jay Leno

Tough jobs require equally tough machines.

Firemen need a fire truck, while policemen require a fast cruiser to chase the bad guys. Even the army and marines on the field need armored trucks to withstand any explosive attacks. Needless to say, tough jobs need equally tough vehicles. That’s why celebrity meteorologist Reed Timmer has a rig to use for what he does best – chasing tornadoes, storms, or any freak that nature could think of.

Timmer starred on Discovery Channel’s reality series called Storm Chaser, the documentary film Tornado Glory, and on the series Tornado Chasers. He makes money by researching these storms, and by researching I mean he literally chases them.

Of course, Timmer’s job needs something that could withstand anything nature could throw at it. In this case, it’s the Dominator 3, which, guessing by the number designation, is Timmer’s third one yet. Now don’t ask me what happened to the other two.

According to Timmer on his visit to Jay Leno’s Garage, his Dominator 3 is a former Ford Super Duty truck. It remained all stock under the hood – a 6.7-liter PowerStroke V8 diesel that makes 400 horsepower (298 kilowatts) and 800 pound-feet (1,085 Newton-meters) of torque – but as you can see in the video embedded on top, the rest are hugely modified. Yes, those are gull-wing doors you’re looking at, and they’re reinforced with 16-gauge steel and polyethylene Kevlar composite for extra protection from projectiles.

Another modification in Timmer’s Dominator is its airbag suspension, which allows the truck to lower itself to the ground in an instant. This removes the space underneath that air could go through, potentially flipping over the rig when experiencing winds of high-velocity.

There are other modifications on the truck and Leno even tested the Dominator 3 using a high-powered jet. Watch the video on top to see what happened.

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