10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

BUILD IT – SHOW IT – WORK IT
The Latest Project from Truck Builder Clint Moore

This month’s creation (Split Decision) was built for Marcus Giddens of Waucoma, Iowa. Marcus runs under the company name G Bar G Ranch, and this truck is the third one he has bought from Clint. All of Marcus’ trucks have been very nice, but this one turned out really special – which is good, because it was Clint’s official entry in the 3rd Annual Big-Rig Build-Off held in Louisville, Kentucky.

The first truck Marcus ordered from Clint was a 1998 Pete 379 Ext. Hood with a standup sleeper. In 2003, they built Marcus an orange and cream 63-inch flattop with number 20’s on the tanks (Marcus is a big fan of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart). When it came to ordering another truck, Marcus told Clint that he wanted a new Extended Hood Pete with a standup so he could take his wife Lori and their three kids (Marissa, Adriel and Marcus Jr.) with him. Of course, his color of choice was the #20 colors, but he told Clint that he wanted it to be cooler than the truck he already had. That would be a real challenge since both Marcus and Clint really like his old school 2003 flattop.

Marcus purchased this third truck last April (2006) and ran a Freightliner Classic in the meantime. He didn’t want to drive the new truck through winter when it was brand new, so he just told Clint that he would pick it up at the truck show in Louisville in March (2007). As time passed and trucks came and went, Marcus’ just sat out back waiting, until one day, last December, when Clint got a call from Bud at Stars & Stripes. Bud invited Clint to join the Big-Rig Build-Off competition being held at the upcoming truck show in Louisville. Clint told Bud that he just takes a new truck and hangs some stuff on it, and that the trucks he builds have to go to work and pay for themselves. Clint was worried that he’d be the laughing stock of the Build-Off. Bud thought that a working truck might mix it up a little and was confident that whatever he brought, it would fit in. Since he was already planning to take Marcus’ truck to the show, he called him and asked if it was alright to enter his rig in the competition. Marcus replied, “I’m a black man that drives a cow truck, I’m used to being made fun of.” But, obviously, both of these guys were more excited than they would admit.

Marcus told Clint that he wanted cab lights, 10-inch pipes, a sweet interior and two gear sticks – as for the rest, he said, “It’s all in your hands, Buddy.” After the truck spent four weeks in the upholstery shop getting a beautiful interior installed, there wasn’t much time for goofing off, so Clint called some of his friends for help. If not for these folks, they would have been in trouble. Jeff, Glen and Jordan from 12 Gauge helped a lot. Other helpers included Clint’s dad, Jim Crain and Neal Dykman, who worked with them until 4:00 AM the morning they had to be in Louisville. Some companies that helped out included Livestock Express, Life Electronics, Dupont, The Weld Shop, Roadworks, Holland, Valley Chrome, Dynaflex and Rockwood (Carl made smooth dash panels and some sweet shifter knobs). Brunners of Joplin also made a few pieces, and Chris Higgins from Details made some cool one-off stuff.

The truck came from the factory painted black with an orange frame (nothing unique there). Clint had a cool idea for the paint job, but it wasn’t until he sat at the airport, waiting on a delayed flight for five hours, that he drew up the actual design. They painted the lower portion of the truck orange and then added cream stripes, painted the breathers, cab lights, spotlights, visor, door jams, floor, deck plates, fuel tanks, air tanks, side skirts, shaved headlight buckets, rear half fenders (over the drivers), and painted around the bunk windows. 12 Gauge bagged and slammed the front, shaved the oil pan and installed a flip-up bumper kit. Clint’s dad cut apart red LED lights for the back of the sleeper and glued amber lenses back on, so they were orange in the day and red at night. They also installed frame covers, a shox box and an old school square hole grill with 13 KW bars.

Clint’s entry, unfortunately, did not win the Big-Rig Build-Off competition, but it sure did look good (and nobody laughed). Marcus pulled his 51-foot Wilson spread-axle hog & cattle combo trailer to the show and went to work the next day. Not many (if any) of the other Build-Off trucks can say that! Marcus started driving as soon as he turned 21, pulling a flatbed for six months. After that, he began hauling livestock and has done so ever since. “If it ain’t alive, it ain’t me,” he says. Marcus refers to himself as a “Livestock Relocation Specialist.”

Seen in one of the photos here is Marcus’ truck and trailer working hard in the mud at a customer’s location in Kansas less than a week after the Build-Off. It also spent some “quality time” in the snow of Iowa shortly thereafter. Yes, this baby works alright! Also pictured here is a nice picture of Clint and Marcus at the truck show in Louisville, as well as a picture of the truck on display at the Build-Off.