10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

COVER FEATURE - MARCH 2007

“BRUISER” PLAYS IN THE SNOW
KRIS & SANDY MARTIN’S KW IS USUALLY ALL BUSINESS
By Daniel J. Linss - Editor

We’ve never done an interview for our cover feature in a hospital before, but I guess there is always a first for everything. This story comes to you from room 2119B on the second floor of Saint Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Three days before our scheduled photo shoot, truck owner Kris Martin came down with Cellulitis (a bacterial infection of the skin) and had to be checked in to the hospital for treatment. We figured the shoot would be cancelled, but Kris’ wife Sandy just said, “I guess you’ll be stuck with me all day.” And stuck we almost were, after taking the truck out into a snow-covered field. Kris was sad he missed the shoot, but very proud of his wife for taking care of things while he was “busy getting better” at the hospital.

Kris & Sandy Martin of Albuquerque, New Mexico are the proud owners of this month’s cover truck – a tricked out KW named “Bruiser” for obvious reasons – this thing is big! Having recently undergone a full rebuild, this truck runs all 48 states, hauling aircraft engines and parts for Aviation Express out of Ocala, Florida and already has 1.4 million miles on the odometer (this ain’t no trailer queen show truck).

The Cellulitis that Kris came down with came from a spider bite he got over six years ago. Apparently, some bacteria from the bite still remained under the skin of his lower left leg where the bite first occurred years before, leaving Kris very susceptible to infections in that leg. Kris blamed the flare up from recently having a toenail removed and maybe not taking care of it for as long as he should have. When the bite first occurred, Kris had to go to the hospital in Denver, Colorado (they were running a load) for a heavy dose of antibiotics, but he hasn’t had any problems since then. I guess he’d better be careful from here on out.

Arriving in Albuquerque on a Thursday morning, we picked up our rental car and headed north to Santa Fe to check into our hotel and then start scouting out locations for the morning photo shoot. A storm had just passed through and it was snowy and cold. Not having much luck on our own, we headed back to meet up with Sandy at her friend’s place where the truck was parked. Larry, Becky and Chris of CF Collision in Santa Fe, made copies of maps and steered us toward a few nice areas in the mountains. In the morning we headed north on 285 and then east on 76, where we found a beautiful location in the middle of nowhere, near Chimayo, New Mexico. We got Sandy on the phone and up she came. She did a great job of getting that huge rig off of the pavement and out into five or six inches of fresh snow (she almost got stuck at the last location). After several hours of shooting (in 10 degree weather), we headed back to Santa Fe to do our interview at the hospital with Kris.

Amidst beeping monitors and other medical contraptions, Kris (58) told us about how he grew up in Southern California and then moved to Sacramento where he studied to become a welder and fabricator. He built motorcycles and hot rods for a while, and then found himself in the frigid oil fields of Wyoming working on drilling rigs. But that did not last long. Kris moved back to Northern California and got involved in the boating/fishing industry. He began by working on boats, then building them, then became a commercial fisherman, and then built his own 47’ sailboat and “floated around” for a while. After this ten-year stint in the boating industry, he got into trucking.

Not wanting to be chained to a desk, Kris thought trucking would be a good career, so he joined a friend who drove for Bekins Van Lines (hauling household goods) as a ride-along lumper in 1986. Kris liked the work and thrived at his job – he loved the physical part of loading the truck and the challenging part of getting as much as possible into the trailer. After a few years, his friend moved into another type of trucking, so Kris signed on with a sub hauler for Bekins and started driving one of their trucks. This is where Kris met Sandy – in fact, she was his boss. A few years later, the two (now a married couple) moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and bought their first truck – a 1989 KW Aerodyne cabover with a large drom box. Kris continued to haul for Bekins while Sandy continued to work in the “office side” of the trucking industry.

In 1996, Kris switched over to Allied Van Lines and bought a new conventional – a 1996 Kenworth W900 Aerocab with a nice 72-inch sleeper. Running in Allied’s Electronics Division, Kris took a dedicated run that went from Phoenix to Salt Lake City, then Denver, Chicago and back to Phoenix every week. While Kris was busy trucking, Sandy had a few tricks up her sleeve. Now that the kids were raised and out of the house (she had two children from a previous marriage), she decided to secretly get her CDL and join Kris on the road. For three months, she went to truck driving school without Kris ever knowing it. In fact, everyone except Kris knew about it. Upon completion, she got her CDL and taped it inside Kris’ birthday card. He opened the card and just stared at the license – he couldn’t believe it. Needless to say, it was a great present and definitely a huge surprise.

The two of them hit the road, together, doing that dedicated haul for Allied. But after seven years of seeing the same places along the same highways, they became brain-dead. They were bored. In 2002 they switched over to Southern Pride out of San Diego, California, hauling jet engines and aircraft parts. They ran with Southern Pride until November of 2006, when they moved over to Aviation Express, which is where they are today. Along the way, they picked up another new truck as well.

Late in 1999, Kris & Sandy purchased the 2000 Kenworth W900 on our cover/centerfold this month – but it didn’t look anything like it does today. Since they were running for Allied, the tractor had to be bright orange. And since they were now running as a team, they ordered the truck with a double frame and 38-inch daycab sleeper (for more structural support and leg room), as well as a large 120-inch custom ICT sleeper. The truck was powered by a capable Cummins Signature 600 engine, hooked to an 18-speed transmission and 3:55 rears. They worked this truck hard until 2005, running it over 900,000 miles, when the engine developed an oil leak. At that point, they decided to rebuild the entire drivetrain – from the radiator to the rear ends – everything was redone. So now they had a truck with new “guts” but an old look. But in 2006, that all changed.

Around May of 2006, the couple shut down their truck for over a month and gave it a full facelift. First, they took the truck to ICT in Indiana and replaced the 120-inch sleeper with a beautiful 138-inch model. The inside of this sleeper features every amenity imaginable, as well as custom cabinets made of Myrtle, an exotic hardwood that only grows in Oregon and Israel (commonly used on gun stocks). It is absolutely gorgeous wood. After the sleeper was installed, the couple took the truck to Jeff & Kim Hillyer’s shop in Minerva, Ohio (Chubby’s Ironwerx and Kustom Trux) where they tore it down, painted it, customized it, then put it all back together. Kris designed the colorful paint scheme and graphic design, but artist Wild Wes and his assistant Todd of Sin City Kustomz (now located in Las Vegas, Nevada) “tweaked” it a bit.

Today, the truck features a custom Jones hood complete with chrome vents that open and close, shaved headlights, a super heavy duty custom headlight bar and brackets (fabricated by David Burkey at 4-State Trucks in Joplin, Missouri) and oversized front tires. All of the aluminum accessories were replaced with stainless steel pieces and the entire truck was rewired. Kris has always “overbuilt” things, and this truck is a perfect example – it is the epitome of what a “large car” is and should be.

Always running hard, Kris & Sandy have never had the time (or the inclination) to enter their rig into a truck show, but this year they plan on showing it in Las Vegas to help promote their painter and his talents. But Kris did not build this truck for status or recognition – he built it simply because he wanted to! He wanted something he could be proud of and that was reminiscent of his hot rod days, but he really didn’t care what anybody else thought of it. He and Sandy love it, and that is enough for them, but we have a sneaky suspicion that many of our readers will love it, too. It sure looked good parked out in that pristine New Mexico snow!

Kris checked out of the hospital the day after we left and is feeling fine now. We’d like to thank the Martin’s for allowing us to do this photo shoot and interview under the hectic and stressful conditions they were dealing with that day. They are terrific people and great examples for other truckers to follow. If you happen to see Kris & Sandy out on the road, give them a wave and thumbs up, and then get the heck out of their path – they have loads to deliver and you don’t want to get in “Bruiser’s” way!