The Operator Is A Serious Ford F-350 Off-Road Menace

If you've ever been to SEMA, the annual aftermarket and tuner pilgrimage to the Nevada desert, you know modified pickup trucks are frequent attendees. The show is packed with various projects and builds designed to highlight a few niche parts or be the calling card of a company's best products. Hellwig, a company that specializes in developing products – think upgraded suspensions and sway bars – for trucks to help them better manage loads. To advertise just how great their products are, the company took a 2017 Ford Super Duty F-350 Lariat Crew Cab and threw an assortment of products into it to create an unholy creation that's ready for the apocalypse – The Operator.

The most striking feature of the truck is a 2017 Arctic Cat Wildcat X LTD two-seater UTV sitting on top of the truck bed with its front tires over the passenger compartment. It makes the already tall F-350 look massive. It also draws your attention away from all the little details Hellwig installed on the truck, so the rear end doest's squat with the UTV loaded in the back. One cool feature is the UTV is stacked above the bed line, leaving room underneath for storage. This way, you don't need to tow a trailer.

Underneath the digicamo paint and tough exterior is a suite of Hellwig-branded gear such as Big Wig air springs and sway bars front and back. A 4.5-inch suspension lift comes from the Icon Vehicle Dynamics Stage 5 suspension kit. It adds to The Operator's presence. The bed line is nearly six-feet tall.

Power comes from the F-350's 6.7-liter Powerstroke V-8 turbo diesel engine, which produces 440 horsepower and 925 pound-feet of torque, which is necessary to haul the truck and the UTV to the edge's of the Earth.

The Operator is a mammoth – and it looks great. It also serves a purpose, and the marrying of form and function is excellent.