10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

BELIEVING IN YOUR VISION
The Latest Project from Truck Builder Clint Moore

This month’s “creation” was built for John Skala of Bartlett, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). In 1976, John was the manager of a supermarket and his neighbor was a truck driver. John asked the neighbor if he would teach him how to drive a truck on the weekends. Once he felt comfortable behind the wheel, he tried to get a job as a trucker but nobody would hire him due to his lack of experience. So he went to the local GMC dealer and bought a 1976 GMC General and a dump trailer, because they were the only people who would finance him with no experience.

John pulled a dump trailer for three years but had a hard time dealing with the ups and downs of doing seasonal work. He has bought numerous new trucks since then – all conventionals. Currently, John pulls a 48-foot stainless steel reefer with a shiny roll-up door. John has been with Budreck Truck Lines for 23 years and runs LTL refrigerated freight on the east coast.

John’s new truck is a “Legacy Class Limited Edition” 379 Peterbilt with a 63-inch flattop, a C-15 Cat with 550 horsepower, an 18-speed transmission and a 310-inch wheelbase. The truck also features a cool, factory two-color paint scheme of Slate Grey and White with a Slate Grey Metallic frame. After the truck arrived at Clint’s shop, they added lots of goodies including a stainless steel drop visor and rear light bar, two extra bullet lights, four extra grille bars, double 359 headlights on Double JJ brackets, and stainless steel Hogebuilt half-fenders with Clint’s custom hidden front brackets. But they didn’t stop there.

They also changed all of the lights on John’s new truck to clear LEDs, installed a stainless steel smooth inframe deck plate, added six stainless battery boxes (with billet step plates on all of them), switched out the standard exhaust with 7-inch Rod Pickett flattop pipes with custom catalyst underneath, and fitted the breathers with custom clear lights. Inside the cab, Clint and his talented crew painted all of the dash panels (they even painted the wood steering wheel), moved the seats back, and installed a painted aluminum floor with the paint scheme running through it.

This is the second truck Clint has done for John – the first one (which he just traded in) was a 2005 Peterbilt 379 with a flattop and a 625 Cat. After buying it, he flew down to look at it and told Clint, “I don’t like it, but if you have a vision then fix her up and I’ll drive it.” When he came back to pick it up, Clint made him a believer. Even John’s wife Judy sent him a “thank you” card saying, “Thanks for having a vision.”

When it came to trade time, John told Clint, “Make me another one – just put more shiny stuff on it this time.” When John got home with this one, Judy came out to pick him up from the place he parks the truck. When she saw it, she got out of her car and ran over and gave her husband a great big hug and said, “It’s beautiful!” Those words are music to Clint’s ears, and another reason why he always says, “I love my Job!”