"WORKING MAN’S PhD"
BY ROVING CORRESPONDENT TROY MILLER
In today’s society, it seems that if you don’t have a few official slips of paper from weightily-named institutions hanging on the wall, people won’t take you seriously. In large part, however, the trucking industry has refrained from this view, valuing responsibility, determination, a good moral compass, and a strong work ethic over any college degree to validate an individual’s worth. Brian O’Leary is one of those individuals who would show you himself and his truck long before he’d show you any degrees. But he does have a “Working Man’s PhD” that he is very proud of.
A second generation trucker, Brian O’Leary of Fort Collins, CO spent twenty-two years driving for Western Distributing out of Denver, not only driving, but also going to truck shows and testing Cat engines for them. A few years ago, Brian even delivered 10-4 Magazine’s pallet of stuff to the truck show in Louisville, KY. But in his spare time, Brian would work on his project truck. After those 22 years at Western, Brian left in pursuit of finishing his truck and driving for himself. The yield of his independence and hard work is his “Working Man’s PhD” – the truck featured here.
Generally, the description of a truck begins with the year, make and model. Brian O’Leary’s truck, however, being the work of his own hands, is at best described as a 1999 Peterbilt 379 with a 300-inch wheelbase. This, however, can only be said for so much of the truck. Brian has powered his Peterbilt with a 2005 ACERT Cat that was purchased from Caterpillar’s Mossville, IL Tech Center – it only had 800 test hours on it. The engine was then de-Acerted by Troy Lake of Elite Motorworks, and then a reworked ECM featuring C-16 programming with Australian settings was installed, giving O’Leary around 650 hp under his right foot. The de-Acerted Cat is backed by a completely rebuilt Spicer 6-speed transmission with a 4-speed auxiliary. The 63-inch flat top sleeper, bought from the Pickett Brothers in Washington, is from a 2001 Peterbilt.
The interior, sleeper and cab, featuring 70-ounce plush maroon carpeting throughout, is beautiful. All of the dash pieces were replaced with custom rosewood panels from Rockwood, and special rosewood dome lights, made by Carl (the owner of Rockwood) himself, were installed. Brian took solid walnut and made custom sleeper closet doors, as well as custom shelves at the end of the bed. Sound within the cab is supplied by an Alpine XM radio routed through a four-speaker system in front, backed by a 300-watt amplifier. The sleeper features a 19-inch Toshiba flat-screen TV with a DVD player that plays through a Sony surround-sound system. All of these electronics are powered by a 1500-watt inverter. With all the gadgetry inside of Brian’s truck, it appears odd that the truck lacks a CB, but a working man isn’t about talk, so Brian left it out!
When Brian ordered the custom wood and panels for his interior, he ordered a kit for a 2001 cab, which included an opening for a peep-hole window in the passenger side door. Brian’s truck did not have a peep-hole window, so he and Carl (of Rockwood) came up with a unique solution. Brian had recently hauled a car for Garth Brooks, and was lucky enough to not only meet him but get an autograph, too. Carl scanned the autograph and some words from a Garth Brooks song into his computer and then engraved them into a piece of rosewood, which they used to artfully fill the non-existent peep-hole window opening. Some of the words from that song, “Much too young, to feel this damn old,” explains how many drivers sometimes feel as they rattle down the road for untold miles and years.
Customization on the exterior began with the wheelbase being stretched to 300 inches. Peterbilt 359 headlights overlook a big bumper while a drop visor and seven cab lights look down from above. The exhaust is pushed through a straight-through muffler mounted under the cab and then out 7-inch Dynaflex stacks. The frame is closed up with diamond-plate deck plating and half-fenders sit over the rear axles. The paint job, done by Diversified Paint and Body in Denver, CO may look familiar to older truckers, as it was inspired by the paint scheme of the old Monfort Kenworth’s that ran out of Greeley, CO in the 1970s. Brian’s father drove for this outfit at one time. Monfort’s trucks were painted in the same striping pattern as Brian’s, but with different colors – bright orange, yellow and white, rather than Brian’s black, gold and maroon scheme.
The truck’s name, “Working Man’s PhD” is written on the rear of the sleeper. The name was derived from a song by Aaron Tippin about the blue collar worker. Brian loves the song and can relate to the lyrics which say, among other things, “Have no plaque to hang on the wall for the world to see.” Looking closely, under the name of the truck, is a jumble of what looks like nonsense scribbled in gold under the name of the truck – it is Aaron Tippin’s signature. Brian was fortunate to meet Aaron at a concert in his hometown in Colorado and get him to sign the back of his truck, which he later had permanently cleared into the paint.
Brian O’Leary knows the value and the toll of hard work. In the midst of building “Working Man’s PhD” a nasty accident caused a large amount of damage to his arm. When Brian arrived at the hospital, some of the doctors thought that it might need to be amputated. Thankfully, his arm was saved, which allowed Brian to finish his cool truck.
Brian may not have a PhD from Stanford, but he does have several plaques he can hang on the wall. Brian received the National Driver of the Year Award from the Truckload Carrier’s Association in 2004, and then the Colorado Motor Carrier Association’s Driver of the Year Award (with over 3.5 million miles of safe driving) in 2007. Brian is humbled by all of these accolades, but would give them back for one more minute with some his fellow drivers that have passed on, stating, “I could go on for hours with driver stories about these men. In life, everyone you meet makes an impact on your life, and these men have made many on mine.”
Brian O’Leary prides himself at having built this truck by himself, with help from just his friends and fellow drivers, and with no corporate money. And after 37 years of driving, he has certainly earned his PhD in trucking. His awesome “Working Man’s PhD” rig may be too large to hang on the wall, but maybe he can frame these pages and that can be his “plaque” for all to see. After all, in our eyes, he has earned it!