Trucks Fit for a King

Written by Tanya Manus for The Motor Market magazine (July 2022)

The call of the open road is inspiring people to live and work from anywhere they choose. That recent trend is fueling the success of King Series’ Trucks. People want to roam, and they want the space and comfort of a King-sized six-door pickup when they travel.

King Series Trucks’ custom-built, custom-designed pickups are increasingly in demand as families travel for work and recreation. The Emery, South Dakota-based business discovered a market and now ships its distinctive, durable trucks nationwide.

“We take Ford Super Duty pickups, convert them to six-door pickups and send them all over the country. Most of them are built to order,” said Angel Eddy, Vice President of King Series Trucks, Parts & Accessories.

This 1995 F350 is a unique build for the staff at King Series Trucks. This has been the oldest model they have built to date, so sourcing parts has been quite a challenge. Angel and her daughter Kelsey, who works as their office administrator and marketing director, were constantly on the lookout for parts for the build.

This may be the oldest model so far, but the Ford OBS body style is certainly something to look at with the classic style and body lines. “This six-door build has a lot of guys drooling over it,” said Kelsey. “Our customer is beside himself with excitement to get his truck delivered to him!”

This 1995 F350 was originally a white crew cab, and now King Series has transformed it into a six-door pickup in a striking black color with a custom interior. This build is practically new all over, including a new 7.3L motor and transmission. “This build originally started out as a work truck for our client, but I think he may be rethinking if he will let his guys get in it when they are dirty,” Angel said.

“We build a truck as per their specifications and customize it to fit their needs and lifestyle,” Kelsey said. “It’s interesting to get to know the clients and why they need a six-door truck. Many of our customers have big families, but we also have built for hunting lodge owners, contractors, rodeo goers and more.”

“People are ready to travel, so it’s been really busy,” Angel said. “The ability for people to work remotely has been a game changer for our customers. I’ve had a lot of our family clients say, ‘Instead of giving our kids things, we want to give them experiences.’ It is so cool that our trucks can make this possible for them.”

King Series Trucks owners Chad and Angel Eddy know from experience their trucks are ideal for large families.

The first truck Chad built in 2010 was to fill a practical need. When he and his wife, Angel, married and blended their families, Chad decided to build a truck to accommodate their six children. His years of experience in automotive, electrical, fabrication and welding made him ready for the challenge.

“I have three girls and Chad has three boys, and we were wanting to help blend our family together by going to the lake, camping and doing things they enjoy,” Angel said. “We were always taking two vehicles and that wasn’t helping us blend.” They also needed towing power for toys and of course, plenty of room for their family of eight.

“Chad said, ‘I want to build a six-door pickup so we can all go together.’ We believe it’s not just the destination, but it’s the journey too. There is nothing like a good road trip to bring everybody together,” Angel said. “Chad built the first truck for our own use. We drove it all over with the kids and everywhere we’d go, people would come up to us and say, ‘This is what we need.’ We started thinking maybe there’s a market for these trucks.”

The Eddys slowly worked into building King Series Trucks into a full-time family business. After selling their first truck to test the market, they built two more that sold quickly. Now they build about fifteen each year, in addition to running the parts and accessories division of their business.

“One thing we really love is that our kids are very involved in the business,” she said. “They were truly the reason we built the first truck, so it’s been fun and important to us that a lot them have stayed involved and some of them work for us full-time or part-time. Honestly, we would just love it if all six of our kids worked for us! If it wasn’t for all of them, we wouldn’t be building these today.”

Each King Series Truck is built from two pickups that are taken apart and reconstructed as a six-door pickup. Each finished pickup has three rows of seats in the cab and a standard-size factory-issued truck bed. The Eddys search nationwide to find lower mileage trucks that are good candidates for being rebuilt into six-door pickups.

“Chad enjoys taking them apart and building them up into something original, unique and really awesome,” Angel said. “When we build them, we take everything completely apart. The cab is removed from the frame, the dash and everything comes out of the cab, then we fabricate the new larger cab. It’s like it came from the factory that way.”

The team uses techniques that produce nearly invisible seams and strong joints, according to kingseriespickup.com. Every pickup built goes through a complete in-house Ford computer diagnostic testing, step-by-step alignment with an onsite system and a 100% repaint as part of the conversion process. Each truck is personally road tested for at least 1,000 miles before it is delivered.

Standard features on every King Series Truck include USB charging ports, Katzkin custom leather interiors, rust-proof undercoating, Bullet Liner bedliner, theft protection devices and more amenities for comfort and practicality.

Custom bumpers and LizardSkin sound- and heat-proof spray-on coating also are standard features that make King Series Trucks, Parts & Accessories unique.

“We spray LizardSkin inside the cab, on the roof, the firewall and inside all the door panels. The two separate coatings cut down on road and engine noise,” Angel said. “If you live in a hot climate (it keeps the truck cooler) or if it’s cold, it helps keep the truck warmer. It’s a great product.”

“We also have our own custom bumpers built,” she said. “They’re made by It’s Just Metal located in north central Kansas. Chad worked directly with our bumper designer/fabricator to get the lines, style and mounting points just right for a great look on a 2011-2016 Super Duty. The quality of the bumpers is superb and we’re working to expand that line into running boards and grille inserts. We hope to get those other products on the market later this year.” Chad and Angel both agree, “the bumpers are our favorite product that we install on our builds.”

Customer upgrades often include larger fuel tanks or extra fuel tanks, massaging seats and accessories such as racks for transporting bikes, kayaks and other recreational equipment.

Another area where clients can express their style on their truck is with a custom look through hydro-dipped accessories. “We offer many different film options for our customers to select from. We have some talented guys on staff who do a great job with the hydro-dipping. We dip emblems, interior trim pieces and more,” Angel explained.

Angel shares her husband’s passion for trucks, and her favorite part of her job is getting to know the people they are building for.

Clients can visit the shop, take a tour, choose paint colors, bumper and accessories and “really get their hands on products to make decisions of what they want in their own truck,” Angel said.

“We’ve had some awesome experiences when we deliver the trucks, including being a part of clients’ surprising their family with it! Chad and I typically deliver the trucks personally; that way, we can show clients how everything works and gives us a chance to meet them in person, plus our client doesn’t have to worry about logistics. It’s kind of a fun way to do it,” she said.

King Series Trucks is now tackling an even bigger build — an eight-door 2015 F450 dually with an eight-foot bed for a client with five children, Angel said.

See some of the King Series Trucks this summer at the South Dakota State Fair. To learn more about King Series Trucks, Parts & Accessories, visit kingseriespickup.com and follow them on Facebook.

Facebook: @kingseriestruck