Kent Adds Customized Ford Trucks To Marine Concepts Motorsports Offerings

In the same meeting with marine industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Randy Kent, you can order a beautiful Renegade Powerboats center console and a high-precision custom cover from Marine Concepts to protect it. And now, with Kent’s recent acquisition of DEFCO Trucks, you can order a brand-new customized Ford BA-350, BA-450 or BA-550 truck—the “BA” designation is shorthand for “Bad Ass”—to haul the boat before you leave his office.

Decked out by DEFCO, Ford’s F-350 (above), F-450 and F-550 form the foundation of the customized truck line. Photos courtesy/copyright DEFCO/Marine Concepts Motorsports.

Kent, whose digitized boat cover business is in Kaiser, Mo., near the Lake of the Ozarks, purchased Colorado-based DEFCO earlier this year.

“Think of it as a Ford Raptor on steroids,” he said. “My wife wanted one so I called DEFCO, and by the time I got off the phone I bought the company.

“We basically start with an F-350, F-450 or F-550 and completely replace the suspension system, add a computer-controlled air-suspension system and add large radial tires—we take off all the dually fenders,” he continued. “We take the entire truck apart and replace all of the body parts but the cab and doors, and then repaint the entire vehicle. We’re doing all the body shop work at our 15,000-square-foot facility in Kansas City and doing all of the suspension work at our 30,000-square-foot Kaiser facility.”

None of the DEFCO modifications, Kent emphasized, void the Ford factory warranty for the vehicles.

With or without a boat behind them, DEFCO Ford trucks are simply stunning.

In late August, Kent showcased a BA-450 truck at the Shootout On The Strip street party during the 33rd annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. He promptly “sold it on the spot” and took orders for four more. Owned by Rocky Hauhe, the Pinnacle Automotive Gallery of O’Fallon, Mo., already has signed on as a DEFCO dealer. So, too, has Elite Autos in Jonesboro, Ark., owned by Shelby Smith.

Visitors to the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run Village next month will find a DEFCO BA-450 among the vehicles displayed. Rick Lindsey, the owner of XINSURANCE, which has been making a splash all year through its sponsorship of the Super Stock-class CR Racing team and backing of the 50-foot Good Boy Vodka Mystic Powerboats catamaran owned by Alex Pratt, will take delivery of the truck after the Key West event.

And Kent has even more developments coming.

“I can’t give out all the details just yet, but a customer of painter Stephen Miles has DEFCO creating a BA version of something from another truck brand,” Kent said, then laughed. “And it’s going to be really bad-ass.”

DEFCO has a BA Ford truck solution for a broad range of high-performance boat-hauling needs.

Kent Adds Customized Ford Trucks To Marine Concepts Motorsports Offerings

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