COVER FEATURE - JANUARY 2010
MAKIN’ MONEY – NOT MILES!
YOU DON’T NEED TO GO FAR TO GET FAR
By Daniel J. Linss - Editor
Whoever said you had to run a lot of miles to make a good living hasn’t met Chris McCue of Middletown, NJ. Chris likes makin’ money – not miles! And if you can get far without going far, why wouldn’t you? Chris hauls LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) in the Tri-State area (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania), and recently had his old Freightliner customized by the guys at Elizabeth Truck Center in NJ. The end result, as you can see, is one head-turning freight shaker.
At only 35 years old, Chris is not one for change – except when it comes to jobs. He lives just a few blocks from where he was born and raised in New Jersey, he has only owned a few trucks since becoming an owner operator ten years ago, and he has been with the same girl, his wife Kelly, for thirteen years (they just got married a year ago). But when it comes to jobs, Chris has bounced around plenty, always looking for greener pastures. But, he has found a good home at the company he is currently leased to, and has been there for almost five years.
Chris was not raised around trucking. At one time his father owned a gas station, but then he switched careers and went into the insurance business. After graduating from high school, Chris moved out and went to work at Taylor’s Towing in Tinton Falls, NJ. Working his way up the chain, he moved on to bigger and better trucks and, eventually, recovery work. After two years, he left there and began hauling cars on a three-car trailer for a local dealership. Not long after that, Chris and a partner started their own towing company – which was a huge success. Chris and his partner went from one wrecker to seven in the first year, and then went on to open a repair facility and a tire shop as well.
Chris provided the brains for the towing operation, while his partner provided the funds. This is where Chris met his wife Kelly – she was hired-on as a secretary to help out in the office. Although the company was a great success, after just two years, Chris and his partner no longer saw eye-to-eye, and the two went their separate ways. Chris took some time off, got his CDL, and then went to work at a local dump truck outfit. He was still only 22 years old.
Running stone from a local quarry to an asphalt plant, Chris enjoyed the dump truck work, but it was very seasonal. Wanting steady work, he moved on to a few recycling companies and garbage outfits, running locally, driving roll-offs and such. After several job changes, he ended up at Triple M Sanitation. After three weeks of driving a ratty old Autocar, the owners gave Chris a brand new Mack to drive. These guys were pretty cool, and they let Chris dress up his new Mack a bit – so he kept it very clean. This is about the time his interest in big trucks and shiny chrome really got sparked.
After awhile, Triple M was sold, but the company that purchased it couldn’t acquire the necessary permits to continue serving all of the contracts the company had, so the old owners of Triple M (three brothers) started another outfit called Standard Waste Services to handle those contracts. Most of the drivers from Triple M went to work at the new company, but the brothers convinced Chris to stay on with them at their new operation. Chris got another new company truck and continued to haul garbage in and around New York for a couple more years.
During these few years, Chris was always saying, “I think I want to buy a truck.” Finally, one day Kelly said, “Well do it already – stop talking about it and just do it!” One week later, in 1999, Chris bought his first truck – a 1987 Peterbilt 359 with a 290-inch wheelbase and a juiced-up Cummins NTC 400 Big Cam with 850 hp. Wow, what a truck! Unfortunately, Chris had no idea what he really had – he also had no idea what to do with it. After about a month, he found some work, left the sanitation company, and formed his new business – All County Transportation.
Signing on with Apgar Bros. Motor Freight, Chris began pulling a flatbed, delivering building materials to Home Depot stores in the area. But, what he really wanted to do was pull for Hailey Transport, a local company with nice equipment that hauled fuel. After cutting his teeth at Apgar and hounding the owner of Hailey to give him a chance, Chris was finally allowed to sign-on at Hailey, where he began delivering fuel to gas stations. He drove that hopped-up Pete 359 for just a few months, and then New Jersey passed a smoke opacity law. It didn’t take long for Chris to get stopped and checked – and his truck failed miserably. Seeing the writing on the wall, he sold that cool truck and bought a 1995 Kenworth with a big stand-up sleeper and a 435 Cat. Chris has never been satisfied since – even today, he still regrets letting go of that unique old Pete.
Chris drove this big KW for about a year, and then an electrical fire that started behind the dash burned it to the ground. Thankfully, Chris was able to get pulled over and safely detached before his gasoline tanker trailer could get hot enough to explode. After all the hassles (and time) dealing with the insurance company, Chris bought a rough 1996 Peterbilt and went back to Apgar for a short time. After only three weeks, the truck’s Cummins N14 engine died, costing Chris more time and more money.
After the short stint back at Apgar, Chris went to Dana Transport for a few months, and then to Debra Petroleum, where he stayed for a year. In 2003, rates were bad and business was slow so Chris parked his truck and took about nine months off. After most of their resources had been depleted, he bought a new 2003 Transcraft Eagle flatbed trailer and went back to work, taking a job running regional loads, hauling mostly steel. But after two years of being on the road, away from home more than he wanted to be, he quit there and went to Papco LLC out of Bridgeton, NJ – where he still is today.
Chris promised Kelly that he would not buy another truck until the 1996 Pete was paid for, but he dumped a lot of cash into that money-pit rig over the four years he owned it. He got it looking (and running) pretty good, but he was never satisfied with it, so in 2005 he bought his first brand new truck – a metallic blue Peterbilt 379 with a 280-inch wheelbase and a 550 Cat. He did a little work to this rig, which included shaving the door handles, emblems, cab lights and horns. He also installed a set of fiberglass fenders, a drop visor and a big bumper.
When he ordered the 2005 Peterbilt, he was still driving over-the-road, so he got it with a big sleeper, but once he switched over to Papco, hauling propane and LPG locally, he really didn’t need it anymore. In 2007, he decided to get rid of the big Pete and buy a good, used, smaller truck. Another driver at Papco really liked Chris’ big blue Peterbilt, so he offered to trade (more or less) two trucks – a 1999 Freightliner Classic XL with a stand-up sleeper and a Peterbilt 359 – for his big Peterbilt. Chris agreed, thinking that he would run the Peterbilt, but it wasn’t really setup for what he was doing and the Freightliner was surprisingly comfortable, so he sold the Pete. He removed the big sleeper from the bright purple Freightliner, did a little mechanical work to it, and put it to work. At that time, trucking got slow, so it was good that Chris had downsized.
Hauling LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) in an old 43-foot Lubbock propane trailer that holds 11,300 gallons of fuel can be dangerous. The pressure in his tank is about twice the ambient (outside) temperature, so if it is 120 degrees outside, the pressure in his tank is about 240 psi. Most of his work consists of picking up full loads of LPG at rail heads and refineries and delivering to storage facilities for distribution companies.
Most of the gases used for heating homes and businesses throughout the northeast come from a vast network of underground pipelines that deliver gases like LPG and LNG (liquefied natural gas) from south Texas all the way to Rhode Island. When a sudden cold spell hits, the entire region can deplete its resources in two days. In the winter, when it gets cold, companies like Papco can go from say 50 loads a day to 500 a day. And, if it gets really cold, that number can skyrocket to 1,000 loads a day!
Unlike natural gas, which occurs naturally, LPG is a by-product derived from refining crude oil. Natural gas can be found with or without oil and in coal beds. Several “contaminants” need to be removed (refined) from natural gas before it can be used, and these contaminates include other usable gases such as propane, butane, sulfur, ethane and propylene. Chris sometimes hauls these products as well, but mostly LPG. Here’s an interesting fact: the world’s largest natural gas field is Qatar’s offshore North Field, estimated to have 25 trillion cubic meters of gas in place – enough to last more than 200 years at optimum production levels.
In late 2008, after driving the Freightliner for about a year and after a small fender-bender banged up his hood, Chris decided that it was time to take his truck to Anthony Pesce and the rest of the guys at Elizabeth Truck Center (ETC) and their sister shop Car Craft Truck Works for a makeover. Chris wanted to go all-out and do it right, and Anthony, who had never completely tricked a Freightliner, was really excited about the project. These trucks are hard to customize because most companies don’t make many parts for them, so most of the stuff has to be fabricated. Chris and Anthony put their heads together, came up with some wild ideas, and then got started. The entire project took about five months, but that was because of some insurance delays and a few other big projects that came into the shop and pulled some of the guys away from Chris’ rig. Chris drove a rental truck for the entire time that his rig was at ETC.
The 265-inch truck, which is powered by an N14 “Red Top” Cummins, a 10-speed trans and 3.55 rears, was completely disassembled, and then the frame was sandblasted. About 80% of the rivets were replaced, and the entire back panel of the cab was replaced to fill the sleeper opening – Chris wanted it to look like a factory daycab. To achieve the clean “hot rod” look, the chrome grille surround was removed and the front fenders were completely reworked and extended eleven inches down on the back side. Aluminum cab extensions were fabricated and made to line up perfectly with the modified fenders, and then the front end was air-bagged and the springs were de-arched, which dropped the rig seven inches. To compliment the “clean” look, the cab lights and horns were removed and flush, nearly invisible LED lights were installed. The guys also removed the truck’s wind wings, installed one-piece windows, chopped the air cleaners and removed the straps. Now it was ready for paint and accessories.
The Freightliner was painted “Elizabeth Truck Center Blue” with extra pearl and some metal flake mixed in. Then, a thin strip of light blue tape was placed across the middle of the truck and the black was sprayed on top. Chris liked the color of the masking tape so much that he decided to have the breaker stripe painted that color, which was a light, baby blue – they even put the two-tone scheme and the breaker stripe right across the painted air cleaners! The battery boxes were moved six inches forward to allow for the Peterbilt-style eight-inch exhaust with Pickett elbows, and a custom one-off visor was made and installed. Other cool accessories include a stamped grille, a 20-inch Valley Chrome bumper that tapers to 18 inches on the ends, custom mirrors with tubular brackets, and rear fenders from Cool Truck Components.
Some other notable changes made to the truck include shortening the fuel tanks from 150 gallons to 100, installing smooth deck plating, and a static fifth wheel mounted to a custom steel plate. Also, the filler necks were moved to the rear of the fuel tanks, the tanks were painted, and the air line connections were moved into a recessed box at the back of the truck. Under the hood, a few pieces were painted or polished, but the engine remained stock. This engine, which has been rebuilt, has over 800,000 miles on it, but Chris has only contributed 100,000 of those miles over the last three years. Like we said, he prefers money over miles.
Although much has been modified on this truck, Chris is proud of the fact that almost everything is still stock – hardly anything was store-bought or replaced with aftermarket stuff. Chris wanted his Freightliner to look custom, but he still wanted it to retain that “Freightliner” look, so he kept the headlights the same, the wheels the same, the battery boxes the same, and the overall shape of the cab and hood the same. Not much has been done to the interior, but it still looks real nice. Chris dyed all of the interior panels black and installed two leather seats, but other than that, it’s pretty much stock, including the rosewood dash with a full gauge package and the original black carpeting. Chris opted for no CB – too much noise!
When the truck was done, the guys at ETC named it “Bruizer” – an obvious reference to its tough looks and black and blue color. Last year, Chris entered the truck into a few shows and did very well, but this is not a show truck – this is a work truck that earns its keep every day. We met up with Chris and Kelly on Sunday afternoon, the day after the U.S. Diesel Truckin’ Nationals were held in New Jersey, and had a great time taking our pictures on the grass and cobblestone streets of Liberty State Park, near the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. And just across the Hudson, behind the truck, was the beautiful Manhattan skyline – what a view – and what a day!
When asked about the future, Chris simply said, “I’ll go wherever the money goes.” He and Kelly hope to have kids in the future, but not until they are more financially secure. Kelly works in the insurance industry and takes care of Chris’ paperwork, and both of them stay pretty busy with a few small businesses they have on the side (they are always looking for ways to better themselves), but the truck is their bread and butter. Chris also just added a second truck on at Papco – a clean, black-out 2006 Pete 378 shorty that was also customized by ETC. I guess that “financial security” just got pushed back a bit until this second truck starts making some money. Until then, Chris McCue will keep workin’ his cool freight shaker, runnin’ short hauls with a big grin – all the way to the bank!