THE FUEL SQUEEZER
THE LATEST PROJECT FROM CLINT MOORE
This month’s “creation” was built for Blair Bechtel (31) of West Salem, Ohio. Blair, known as “Buckeye Blair” by his friends, is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. No stranger to cool trucks, Blair traded in a flashy Kenworth W900 for this plain white aerodynamic Peterbilt for one simple reason - to save money. He takes a lot of heat from his trucking friends about it, but after improving his fuel mileage 2 mpg, he’s laughing all the way to the bank!
Blair grew up on a farm in West Salem, Ohio. He comes from a large family that includes five older brothers and three sisters. Blair’s father Ward passed away when he was only 17 years old. Wanting to move more into town, his mother Nancy sold their farm to Blair when he was only 18. Blair still lives there today, along with his wife Erin, who was his high school sweetheart.
Blair’s older brother Rick has always been a truck driver - he gave Blair the itch, too. At 18, Blair began driving for a local feed mill until he was 23. At that point, he partnered with a cousin and started a dairy farm. They spent a few years building it up to a 250-cow operation and then got bored and sold out. Blair bought a used 1997 KW W900 flat top that was really decked out, and then went trucking.
Blair drove his Kenworth for several years and kept it in top shape, but his wife Erin, who he jokes about being a “forensic” accountant, said it was time to look into buying a more efficient truck. Blair called Clint and talked about wanting to order a flashy-looking aerodynamic truck, but nothing was done. The two talked about it for several months, and then one day it dawned on Clint that he had the near-perfect truck already sitting on his lot. It wasn’t flashy, but it was built to be efficient, and that is what Blair wanted.
Sitting in on several meetings with the top dogs at Peterbilt and Cummins, Clint realized that much of the talk was about fuel economy - more importantly, how to improve it. Well, apparently Clint was listening. When he had the opportunity to order a stock truck for the dealership, he went a little out of the box and ordered a 2010 Pete 386 with a 70” HR and Peterbilt’s Aerodynamic package, which includes side skirts, aerodynamic mirrors, transition panels, and a roof fairing. He also ordered it with a Cummins ISX 450, a 236” wheelbase, 10-speed direct transmission, and 2:63 rear gears on super single tires. The dash plate says, “Custom Built for Fuel Squeezer,” but the truck wasn’t really built for anyone.
After the truck arrived, Clint and his guys did a little bit of work to it, but not much. They added a Wide Trac front axle, a block heater, an SPL250 drive line, aluminum crossmembers and bell housing, remote lubes for the clutch linkage, dual 135-gallon tanks with fuel cooler, and then polished the faces of the boxes. Most of these changes were made to save weight - they shaved 1,000 pounds off the truck. The truck also had Premium cloth seats, Sirius radio with CD, chrome gauges and four rear load lights. Clint also had perforated white vinyl added to the side windows and peep hole to clean up the truck’s look.
Clint told Blair about the truck and then made the deal. Blair sold his Kenworth to a guy in Virginia, but on the way to deliver it, the engine developed a problem. Not wanting to sell the guy a busted truck, he called Clint and cancelled the deal, turned around, and then headed home to overhaul his KW - which he now expected to keep for a while longer. Hearing what he did, the guy in Virginia said that he would still buy the truck if Blair rebuilt the engine. In fact, he even offered to pay him more for it. It just goes to show, that if you treat people right and be honest with them, chances are, people will treat you right, too.
Since picking up the new truck, Blair has been getting teased a lot by his friends who like to call it things like the Space Shuttle, Volkswagen and mini-van, but it doesn’t really bother him (he kind of likes all the attention). And, since he has improved his fuel mileage by 2 mpg, he figures they can say whatever they want to say.
Today, “Buckeye Blair” hauls agricultural products in his walking floor trailer all over the Midwest. Now that he isn’t at the shop working on his old truck like he used to do all the time, he has more time to be at home, which his wife Erin digs. He misses hanging out with his friends at the shop, but now realizes how much time he really was spending there - having a new truck has made his life a lot easier.
Watching his father’s health decline when he was a kid, Blair saw his community, especially the fire department, really step up and help his family. To give back, Blair joined the local volunteer fire department and now, every year, takes at least one week off to further advance his EMT training and fireman skills. The world is a big place, but when you take a close look, it’s filled with great people - like Blair Bechtel. And his truck may not be the coolest Clint has ever built, but it can squeeze the fuel better than any of them!
~ If you would like Clint Moore to order and/or build you a new custom truck, contact him at Kansas City Peterbilt via e-mail at clintmoore@kcpete.com or call him at (913) 484-7768. You can also visit his website at www.custombuiltfor.com and check out pictures of other custom trucks he has built.