ProPickup

Custom Rigs editor shares time with sister publication’s launch

by Tom Jackson, ProPickup Executive Editor

Where did you learn what you know about pickup trucks?

I’ll never forget the day in 1979 when I threw all our tools, equipment and supplies (plus two hitchhiking Mexican roofers) in the bed of my tiny Toyota pickup and piled two fellow carpenters into the cab and tried to outrun a nasty Texas thunderstorm. It was then that I realized a “quarter ton,” doesn’t mean much.

Today’s trucks, Toyota’s included, can handle five guys and a full load no problem. That much I’ve learned.

But like most, what I’ve learned came from trial and error and word of mouth. People in construction like to talk trucks, but friends and coworkers can sometimes be wrong. Consumer magazines cover trucks as a hobby, but there’s never been a single source of information on trucks for contractors– until now.

That’s the premise of ProPickup. Last year we surveyed the readers of our construction magazines, Equipment World, Total Landscape Care, Better Roads and Aggregates Manager, and found that you own more than a million pickup trucks. That’s an average of eight per company. What’s more, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that 75 percent of all full-sized pickup truck buyers were businesses.

Since businesspeople like you dominate the pickup market, we figured it was time you had your own truck magazine.

At the heart of this enterprise are two experts I wished I’d known back when I was shoveling concrete and standing up homes. First is Bruce Smith, the editor of our sister publication Custom Rigs magazine.

Bruce has been writing about trucks and automobiles for three decades with titles such as Four Wheeler, Auto World Weekly, Truck Trend, Truck Test Digest, Motor Trend, Diesel World and Diesel Power to his credit.

Second, Oregon based photojournalist Larry Walton backs up everything he writes with more than 20 years of construction experience; and in the last six years Larry’s been putting that knowledge into print working as an automotive journalist specializing in pickups.

With these two I think we have the best combination of construction and trucking knowledge for the task at hand, and I hope you like the results you see here. Fire off an email and let us know what you think.

Tell us what you’d like to see in future issues. And be sure to check out our additional content, news, Project Big Boss updates (page 20) and discussion forums on our website www.propickupmag.com.

V. GAINES ROLLIN’ IN STYLE

Gino Guadagni, owner of the flamed-out KW, Inferno Joe, featured in our Summer issue, sent us a photo of the custom rig that hauls his dad’s Kendall Oil Avenger to all the NHRA events.

V.Gaines’ custom rig is a 2005 319″ Pete 379X powered by a healthy 625 CAT backed with an 18 spd. Black pearl is the base and it’s setup with a drop frt axle, 22” bumper, custom grill, drop-single large headlights on JJ bars, front and back, drop visor, 10-inch Dynaflex stacks. All the graphics are custom made by Fineline.

SS Panelite extensions, SS deck plate, WTI fenders, custom Valley Chrome tailpiece, LED lights set the tractor off nicely. V. Gaines’ Kendall hauler also runs a four air horns and an SS Taylor Wing. Look close as the triple 150-gal SS covered tanks have leather covers on the ends. A custom drone box with Pete cap, twin rolldoors, generator, four-axle dump system, air scale system and air compressor supply the truck’s basic needs. ,

The interior – all 379X brushed SS, black with silver leather, all-chrome dash, SS door pouches, chrome door sills, arm rests, chrome/leather steering wheel gives the driver a sense of custom comfort.

The trailer is a 2005 Elite, 53’+ triaxle, smooth-side race transporter with SS full front, over 150 matching oval side lights, 2 HD frt mtd A/C units, mobile tracking satellite, crew lounge, two full fridges, full kitchen, bath, dining area (all with granite counters!), flatscreen, satellite, DVD and Playstation when the races are in rain delay or there’s a long lull n the action.

Dino says it also has two car stage above, plus a stage on the floor for a matching PT cruiser (turbo charged/nitro). The hauler also carries three bikes, a golf cart (all matching), along with a full race shop fitted with SS counters.

The work end of the trailer has carbon-fiber doors, an engine hoist, storage for four complete engines, two on-board computer diagnostic stations, clutch grinders, air compressor, gen set to power a city, full length canopy with matching canvas.

Not a bad ride for those NHRA truck drivers!

OUTLAW’S RETRIBUTION FUEL TANK

Outlaw Customs’ new Retribution Fuel Tank , unveiled at the Mid-America Truck Show on “KMT 359,”  is the true definition of a custom truck part.

Outlaw partnered with Allen-Jac Diesel to produce the fully functional, center-fill, polished aluminum fuel tank, which is available in either an inverted-end (dished) design using straps of your choice or the ultra-cool strapless model that uses internally-built bracing to mount it to the original Peterbilt mounting brackets.

The strapless style is shown here as used on KMT 359, a Working Class 359 Peterbilt and Outlaw’s newest full-on custom build. Contact Outlaw Customs for pricing information.  www.outlawcustsomhd.com ; (303) 952-8109.

Do- It-Yourself

WOOFER POWER

Fabricating a ported subwoofer  enclosure for maximum bass with minimum cost

By Cesar Alvarez

(Photos by Bruce W. Smith)

One of the attributes of a pro-level sound system is its ability to produce crisp, clean notes with the power to seemingly shake the earth.

Such acoustic energy is a product not of the speakers or the amps powering them, but rather the speaker enclosures and how they are tuned for the vehicle in which they are mounted.

This is especially true of a subwoofer, which needs to be mounted in a box designed specifically for the air space the sound system is operating inside be it in a compact car, SUV, motorhome or big-rig.

A subwoofer also needs to be mounted in a speaker enclosure that maximizes the speaker’s ability to move a lot of air, and the most efficient way to move air is with a vented, or ported enclosure. (Think of utilizing ported woofer enclosures as turbocharging your audio system.)

In fact when it comes to a custom rig with a sleeper, one well-designed 12-inch subwoofer box will outperform multiple subs mounted in sealed boxes. It’s one of those audio anomalies where less is more.

Think of a speaker port not as a vent in terms of a path for air to move in and out of the box, but rather as an extra cone area propagating acoustic energy from the enclosure to the cabin.

The air within the cavity of the port is fixed; it’s trapped within the confines of the speaker box walls.

When the subwoofer cone moves there is a corresponding change to the pressure in the box, which causes the trapped air in the port to move either forward or backward. This air mass moves as one solid unit exactly like the speaker cone.[kaltura-widget wid="afuba7eer4" width="260" height="211" addpermission="" editpermission="" align="right" /]

So when you build a properly vented enclosure, it’s like a two-for-one special because the port is essentially another woofer. The port not only provides added output, it also provides more low-frequency extension. Your audio system gets louder and lower at the same time.

To help shortcut the sub-box building process of measuring the air volume of the cab and so forth, here’s a ported, 12-inch woofer enclosure designed specifically for use in custom rigs with flat-top sleepers and 200-500 Watts (RMS) power.

This enclosure is simple to build and delivers exceptional sound performance in a big rig sleeper. We also have two cool videos in our “how-to” videos section showing this build. Enjoy!

Special Thanks:Tripe R Diesel (www.triplerdiesel.com);Airbrush & Design (210.710.2629); and Sun-Masters (210.520.1551)

(About the author: Cesar Alvarez is a professional car audio designer/installer in San Antonio who also competes at the highest levels of audio competitions across the country. He designed and installed the 6,000-watt sound system in the Texas Chrome Shop’s Project One limited-mileage 379 Peterbilt.)

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The perfect gifts for those who take pride in their ride!

Christmas is just around the corner and if you haven’t a clue what to get your trucking buddy, trucking spouse, or trucking boss, think outside the typical Christmas gift box.  Think art.

Think photographs of their favorite custom rig in a frame, on a coffee mug, calendar,  mouse pad, coasters, or even T-shirt.

Or maybe you just want to sent a Christmas card someone’s way with a picture of your own truck, or hang a custom tree ornament picturing it.  We have those as well.

We’ve got the pictures and the place to buy them. Images are from our in-house files, so they are top-shelf and many never seen before. You can get them printed on just about anything you want. WWW.BIGRIGPHOTOS.PRINTROOM.COM.

Just go to our photo web site and browse through the multiple galleries listed on the left of the home page.

Those open up into images we’ve gathered in the last year. Click on the photo(s) you like, and then on the different gift options to see how they look.

Special 10% discount is in place, so start your Christmas shopping early!

Installing 8″ Stacks On Custom Rigs Equipped With DPF Exhausts

“One of the problems we have run into on the DPF trucks being customized here at Pro-Fab is not being able to put big stacks and big Pickett-style elbows on them,” says shop owner and custom fabricator Randy Kaylor.

So the Manheim, PA, fabrication and installation experts figured out a slick work-around that keeps the factory DPF system intact while providing the monster stack custom-look: They designed a faux exhaust to use the monster stacks, leaving the factory exhaust/muffler in place.

” This is one way of getting the look of big pipes,” says Kaylor, who used Anthony Fishkelta’s custom rig from Grand Street Warehouse in Moonachie, NJ, as the guinnea pig. “The truck was ordered with a weed-burner exhaust setup from the factory,and then we fabricated new brackets to support the belly cross-over and the 8″ pipes.

Custom brackets were fabricated to hang the faux exhaust's cross-over pipe.

“So now our customer  has the look of big pipes on a DPF truck. It’s a very clean , custom look,” Kaylor says. We agree. If you have any questions, contact Pro-Fab Associates: www.pro-fabassociates.com; (717)-664-4216

Custom KW Door Window Trim

Give your Kenworth’s cab the chopped look by adding upper window trim panels

A popular customizing trend  among KW owners is adding a painted trim piece to the top of the door window frame to give  the cab a chopped look.

The trim fits along the door lip at the top of window without interrupting the window operation and there are a number of aftermarket stainless offerings available. (Prices range from $90-$120 pair.)

But if you are the do-it-yourself type, you might like to give a shot at making them yourself. The painted version makes the top look chopped, whereas the polished stainless variety provides more shine than slam.

The way customizers at Car Craft Truck Works, Elizabeth Truck Center’s customizing arm, build ‘em is to make a cardboard template of the side window trim. The template extends from the top of the inner door frame lip at the top of the window opening down to an imaginary line even with the front visor and rear roof split.

That template is then transferred to 3/32″ aluminum. The aluminum is cut and a 1/2″ lip is rolled along the bottom edge to 1) give the side visor rigidity and 2) a smooth, almost invisible custom edge.

The aluminum is then sanded, primered and painted to match the color of the truck. The window visor is installed using automotive/industrial double-sided sticky tape along the upper door lip to hold it in place. — Bruce W. Smith

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BIG RED

Frame-up resto takes this 28-year-old Pete from an oil-field workhorse to Build-Off champion

By Bruce W. Smith

Jerry Diemoz is like a teenager being handed the keys to a dream car. Diemoz, the owner of J&R Trucking, an oil-field operations company out of Rock Springs, Wyoming, is all giggly and barely able to take his eyes off Big Red, an ’81 Peterbilt he’s owned from day one. It’s one of the three custom rigs entered in the Big-Rig Build-Off.

Diemoz has logged more than 1.6 million miles in its cab, most of those miles plying the nasty roads and drilling sites of Wyoming’s oil and gas fields hauling rigging and equipment.

But what he sees before him isn’t the old workhorse anymore. It’s a full-on custom show truck.

“I’m amazed, I’m amazed!” he says looking inside the cab. “It’s great!” He’d not seen it finished until the day he came to the Louisville event and walked into the Build-Off display area where Jim Raines, S&J Truck Sales’ president, handed him the keys. His excitement mirrored the thoughts of the three judges for the Industry’s Choice award.

Big Red originally went into the S&J shop in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to have the renowned repair center (and winner of the Build-Off in 2007) give the 28-year-old truck a working rig’s facelift.

The Cat 3408 was already out and awaiting overhaul.  “But when I found out about Jim and the work they do,” Diemoz says, “everything changed. Jim started on it and everything changed again, because he’d been invited to enter a truck in the Big-Rig Build-Off – and we decided it’d be Big Red.”

“As the rebuild progressed,” says Raines, “we tore it down and began with new double-frame rails custom-built by P.G. Adams in South Burlington, Vermont. From there we rebuilt the truck from ground up.

“We replaced all the sheet metal in the hood, cab and sleeper, converted the front axle over to hub pilot-style, and put in the custom stainless boxes.”

Diemoz requested spreading the rebuilt locking drivers from 46 to 60 inches to “make it ride better over those washboard roads we have in the oil and gas fields.”

S&J fabbed new fenders to cover the new Bridgestone drivers wrapped around sparkling Alcoas and built the custom stainless deck plate and frame covers.

Alum-I-Tanks provided 185-gallon saddle tanks to replace the original 135s, Valley Chrome the front bumper, and Roadworks the rest of the chrome trim as well as the custom firewall and engine air intake.

While all that was going on, sound-deadening material and custom speaker enclosures were installed. The Pioneer sound system, rear camera, DVD player and police scanner were wired and mounted.

Then Ft. Wayne’s Marquart’s Custom Creations refurbished the interior in leather, including re-covering the new Comfort Ride seats. Meanwhile Rockwood Products handled the hard interior panels.

Hundreds of miles away in Elco, Nevada, at Elite Motor Works, Big Red’s tired 450-hp V8 received its own special service. Elite’s experts did a block-out rebuild, popping in bigger injectors, oversizing the bore and upsizing the turbo. The result: a 1,000-hp Cat.

When it came back to S&J they fabricated a new air-intake box and redid all the electrical and plumbing to accommodate the bigger stable of ponies.

After all the wrenching and fab work was done, Big Red made a trip across town to Hoosier Trailer & Truck Equipment, where they deftly applied the finishing touches using Dupont Imron 6000 Polyurethane Autumn Leaf and black as the primary colors to make Big Red shine.

And shine it does. The list of modifications reads more like a parts inventory for a custom truck fabrication and repair shop.

But it’s the one item listed at the end in bold type that says it all: 2009 Big-Rig Build-Off Industry Award.

“I spec all my company’s trucks for the work we do so they are ‘custom’ in that respect,” says Diemoz, running his hand along the stainless deck plate.

“But nothing on this level. This is my first custom rig. The thing I like most about it is the detail that Jim did on it. He’s very, very proud of his work and he has reason to be.”

When Diemoz was asked if Big Red was headed back to the muddy oil fields, he said, “No way. We are literally building a showroom for this truck. After all, as my wife says, ‘Our home is one Peter built.’ Now it’s time for it to retire.”

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Sound upgrades to turn your cab/sleeper into the front row seat of a concert

by Bruce W. Smith

Raindrops the size of quarters clatter against the cab as 31-year-old owner-operator Michel Himber closes his log book. It’s just before midnight and he’s beat after ending a 1,200-mile run in bad weather to Chicago.

Himber, who rolls in a Mossy Oak camouflaged 2000 Kenworth W900 with a studio sleeper, pulls out a soft pouch and thumbs through dozens of CDs before settling on one.

He slips Rascal Flatts’ “Feels Like Today” into the dash-mounted Sony head unit and adjusts the volume.

He dials home in Killen, Alabama, as guitars fill the cab with “Fast Cars and Freedom.”

The speakers mute as the sound system goes into hands-free Bluetooth mode and he checks in with his wife to make sure all is well at home and with their two young boys. The music rolls back up as he concludes the call.

Several hundred miles away Jordan Hitchcock cranks up the full-on custom 2,000-watt Alpine sound system in his working class Pete 379 show truck, rockin’ and a rollin’ on into the night with the highway pretty much to himself.

FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC

While legions of owner-operators like Himber are spending $500 to $1,500 to upgrade their stock sound system, another group of truckers like Hitchcock don’t blink at dropping $5,000 or more for custom sound systems that rival those of show cars.

Hitchcock, a 21-year-old audiophile who works for his dad at Webberville, Michigan-based MBH Trucking, is one of the new breed of truckers who have both the love of music and the skills to do much of the installation work themselves.

“I am an electronics lover who likes to have the newest and coolest audio stuff,” says Hitchcock, who put roughly $12,000 into the sound system. “But most of all I like having a good, clean-sounding system when it’s late at night, the roads are empty, and there’s no one to talk to on the cell phone. You just crank it up and cruise down the highway.”

Himber says a good sound system is therapeutic: “It really helps out in traffic jams,” chuckles Alabama trucker. “Music puts some sanity back in my life.”

Which is why audio upgrades are on the upswing. Alex Gobel, manager of Western Truck Parts in Henderson, Colorado, notes his other local store and custom truck shop, Outlaw Customs, caters to a wide range of truck owners seeking audio upgrades.

“Those upgrades can range from $300 for a new head unit and a pair of nice speakers to a full-on custom system with high-end speakers, subwoofers and amplifiers fitted in custom-fabricated fiberglass enclosures, where the tab runs $5,000 and up,”

Glen English, the store manager of Joplin, Missouri-based 4 States Trucks and home of the Chrome Shop Mafia, gets similar customers, and adds sound system upgrades rank “about 5 or 6 on the ‘Top 10’ most popular upgrades truck owners make these days.”

Even local car audio shops are finding upgrading sound systems for truckers a growing part of their market.

Empress Car Audio & Marine in Gulfport, Mississippi, for example, is seeing more and more local owner-operators dropping by to have older head units replaced with more full-featured models that provide satellite radio and interface with iPods, USB and Bluetooth.

“It’s not unusual for us to see a truck owner come in and drop $800 to $1,500 on a new system,” says Manager Michael Taylor. “Such a package might include a 50-watt-per-channel (200-watt) Sat radio/CD combo head unit with four 4-by-6.5-inch speakers in the cab, adapted to the factory locations, with maybe four 6-by-9s popped in the sleeper.”

GOING UPSCALE

For those trucking audiophiles who to step to the next level with higher-end speakers, an amp and sub-woofers, the wallet gets tapped a little deeper. Custom installers say mid-level systems begin in the $2,000-$3,000 range.

The performance of mid-priced audio systems rival the best factory systems found in today’s upscale pickups and SUVs where 400-500-watt outputs are the norm.

Such power and fidelity brings the driver to the front row of the stage—or to the chair next to their favorite talk radio hosts.

English says an example of their mid-level system upgrades would typically include an Eclipse CD head unit with satellite/Bluetooth/USB/iPod/MP3 compatibility, Kicker speakers and subs, and an 800-watt Earthquake amp — all neatly integrated into the cab and sleeper.

An installation of this magnitude requires about eight hours shop labor, which can equate to a third to one-half of the bill. If a lot of custom work is required the price of labor may equal that of the components.

“The higher the price of the pieces, the more involved the installation,” says Gobel. “Fabricating fiberglass or custom consoles and custom wiring is very time-consuming, adding to the labor side.”

Five different speaker enclosures are molded into one filling the sleeper of Ivy's Poison built by the Chrome Shop Mafia.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

How components and brands are chosen, matched, and installed varies as much as the music pumped through them. For example, 4 State’s Chrome Shop Mafia likes the looks and performance of Eclipse, Kicker, and Earthquake components, while Arc Audio amps and speakers are the brand of preference at Outlaw Customs.

But there are more important matters than brand names and aesthetics. Swapping out a factory head unit and factory speakers for those of a higher quality is easy.

But when it comes to installing a full array of high-end audio and video, the task is better left to the pros to get it done right the first time.

“Truckers upgrading their sound systems need to pay special attention to two things,” advises Arc Audio’s Fred Lynch.“One is the installation; it’s more important than the components. Two: Get the best head-unit you can buy. Price really does reflect quality in that area, and if it’s crap, high-power amps and great speakers just magnify that point.”

Outlaw Custom’s Gobel agrees wholeheartedly saying, “The hardest part of a full custom installation of a high-end audio system is the correct placement of the aftermarket parts for optimum sound quality with minimal intrusion on interior space.

“Appearance and performance is everything — from placement to final presentation, it must all blend together and work perfect.”

Another aspect to consider is minimizing downtime. English says, the guys at 4 State recommend truckers who are eyeing a mid- to high-end system should drop by the installer to have everything measured then come back on the next trip for the actual installation.

“That allows the shop to get a head start on making any consoles or enclosures needed for the custom installation without actually taking the truck out of service. When the customer returns on the next trip, all that’s left is the actual installation of the hard parts,” says English.

While Hitchcock is satisfied with his ground-shaking sound system, Himber, like many other owner-operators, is already planning his next upgrade.

“I really want a DVD player and a 10-inch flip-down screen installed in the sleeper so when my wife and our two boys come with me on the road next summer the boys can be kept entertained.”–CR

SOURCES

4 State Trucks, www.4statetrucks.com, (888) 875-7787

Outlaw Customs, www.outlawcustomshd.com, (303) 952-8109

Western Truck Parts, www.westerntruckparts.com, (800) 541-3400

Related article: http://crm.randallreillycms.com/about-audio-amps/

AUDIO PRODUCTS SHOWCASE

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