FEBRUARY 2008 TRUCKER TALK
OUR ILLUSION
BY OWNER OPERATORS ROD & KIM GRIMM
Leland Martin’s song “Stone Cold Fingers” has a line in it that says “Another million miles ain’t no big deal,” and as we’re already 100,000 miles toward our 3rd million, I think that’s so true. On August 8, 2007 we watched as the digital odometer on the dash of our old Kenworth rolled over 2,000,000 miles – and she still looks and runs awesome!
Even with all those miles, our Kenworth still runs strong and out-pulls many of the new engines. It does a great job for us and we brag on it all the time, but as we always say, there is always something out there that is bigger and will pull better than what we’ve got. I’m just happy she out-pulls a few trucks out there. Honestly, it’s discouraging for them, but fun for me! Like a song Kenny Rogers sings with a little variation, you should know when to brag, and when to be quiet.
On October 21, 1998 we became the proud owners of a Light Blue Metallic W900 Kenworth we named Illusion. The three trucks that we’d driven prior to this one had been Black and I really wanted this truck to be Black Lilac, but Rod really wanted the light blue. But I also wanted to shave the fenders and add round headlights, so we compromised. I got the hood the way I wanted it and the fenders and the whale tail were painted black, and Rod got the light blue, which was similar to his pickup. And together they’ve worked. There are a few trucks out there this color, but it’s not common. Back then, they had a limited edition celebrating Kenworth’s 75th anniversary, but we decided that we didn’t want a truck that looked like 499 other ones running around the highways.
Thanksgiving of that year she (the truck) started getting what would be the first of many changes. Joplin Kenworth in Joplin, MO had a 1997 hood that had fender damage, so before our truck came in, they did all the body work and shaved the fenders (removed the lights and filled in the holes) and painted it to match our truck, all before we even got there. All we had to do when we got there was swap the hoods and hook up the new headlights, which saved us a lot of downtime that it would have taken to shave the fenders on our new hood.
The reason that we shaved the fenders was because we wanted to make the truck look older – the first part of the “Illusion” of this truck. If a driver wasn’t paying attention (and overlooked the Studio Sleeper), he might think he was looking at an old rig – and it worked. I actually had one guy ask what year it was, and when I asked him to guess, he answered, “a ‘61?” It must have been a long time since he’d seen a truck that old (they were a lot smaller back then). Yes, Kenworths really did have the headlights on the fenders back in the 1950’s.
Over the years we have heard a lot of comments like, “If you wanted a Peterbilt, why didn’t you buy a Peterbilt?” To which we always answered, “If we could afford this and we really wanted a Peterbilt, don’t you think we would’ve bought a Peterbilt?” Some drivers liked the look and others told us how much they didn’t like it. We figured we didn’t like everybody else’s trucks and not everybody would like ours. But we like it, and since we were the ones paying for it, that’s what mattered. Just like the guys who owned the trucks we didn’t like – they were paying for them, and we didn’t have to drive them, they did, so they should like it!
When we were on Kenworth’s Drivers Board we tried to tell them to offer this style of hood as an option but they did not think that it was a good idea. Dave Jones of Jones Performance did. Shortly thereafter, he started offering replacement hoods with much more than just shaved fenders (high quality, custom hoods that even our KW dealer told us fit better than the ones from the factory). If you are looking for a hood with this look or you have an idea for something really cool and custom, Jones is the place to go. You can find many of their “Truck-Rodz” hoods on show trucks everywhere. To get more information or to get in touch with them, go to www.jonesperformance.com.
The next change came in May of 1999 when my brother, Paul Wiley of Lincoln, NE put in our wood floor. That took almost a week, but after almost nine years, it was worth every minute. Paul continued changing our bunk and making it look like home inside. He changed the closet and cupboard doors to oak, including the refrigerator panel. After removing the upper bunk, he made an aluminum frame and then installed cupboards across the back and then along each end. He even put in two lighted curio cabinets under the cupboards.
Then one day he said, “Hey, Sis, I found a really cool TV.” He never did like the TV we had with a built-in VCR player in the bottom, or the shelf he’d made for it to sit on. The new one he found was a 15-inch flip-down screen that he attached under the cupboard at the foot of the bed with a custom aluminum shelf he’d built. It works great, and watching it is comfortable. He put the microwave up where the TV had been. When he finishes something, he wants it to look like it could have come from the factory that way. He’s a great little brother, and when he’s working on the truck, his favorite thing to say to me is, “Sis, you drive the truck – I’ll do the thinking.” And with the work he does, how can you argue? Although I still try to put in a suggestion or two (or three).
Our friend Mary Ann at Blast Graphics in Hartland, WI changed the graphics in 2002, making the stripes out of shade shift tape, adding even more to the Illusion. In some light the stripes look gold, and then sometimes they look burgundy. When we bought our trailer, Mary Ann carried the same design back onto it, and then tied it all together.
Then in 2006, I decided that I had to have double bucket headlights. Along with a new louvered grill, the double round headlights gave the truck’s front end another new look. That was until Jerry Jeffries, founder of Double JJ Enterprises, asked us to road test his new stainless steel headlight brackets and stainless steel single round headlights. I have to admit that after getting the double round headlights, I never liked them as much as the single ones. And these new Double JJ’s are even more awesome than ever! With a little more tear drop in the bracket and a cool little marker light and turn signal on top of the light, our “Illusion” looks better than ever.
A lot of drivers have told me that I really shouldn’t talk about the truck the way I do or, “It’ll leave you sitting alongside the road.” To them I always say, “When I quit talking about her that way, that is when she’ll leave us sitting alongside the road.” But our old truck has earned the right to brag about her! The miles we’ve gotten out of so many of the major parts on this truck is truly amazing – and she’s still out here delivering the freight each and every week.
Caterpillar has recently started recognizing trucks with over two million miles and we are now part of a five-truck club. There is only one truck in this new club that hit this impressive two million mile mark just a little younger than our “old” girl. It usually takes many more years to put on this kind of mileage, but we have always run hard.
The “Million Miler Club” has been around for years, and I think it’s great that they are now recognizing the trucks out there still going long after that first million. When you get in the Million Miler Club, Caterpillar gives you a cool package including decals for your truck, hats, certificates, and some very nice jackets. Joining the “2 Million Miler Club” gets you more certificates, a great Cat watch, and again, nice jackets. So if you have a Cat that has over two million miles, maybe you should get in contact with your Cat dealer and see about getting your truck in this exclusive new club.
This week, at a receiver, the guard on duty asked, “Is that truck new?” When I told him no, he asked how old it was, but he didn’t want to believe me when I told him. I gave him a copy of our 10-4 Magazine centerfold (I hand a lot of those out), and when I left he forgot to ask me for the paperwork to get me out of the gate. He just went back into the guard shack, centerfold in hand, and was happy as can be. I know if we get back there any time soon, he’ll remember our truck.
Many of our receivers know us, and the truck, and know that their freight is in good hands when they give it to us. They don’t worry about the truck being old and breaking down. Looking close, she needs a little work – like a new bumper and half fenders – but we’re waiting until spring for those kinds of things. Over the long haul, even after all the hard miles she’s got on her, after a good bath she can still turn heads and get her fair share of thumbs up.
I love going to the Embarcadero in San Francisco to make pickups. I try to have her real clean when we go down there because many of the tourists, from all over the world, love to take pictures of her and take them home as souvenirs from their trip. Some people even climb inside and are surprised to see how the interior looks and how big everything is. From little kids to an old man from Germany – they love to pose for a picture sitting in the driver’s seat, holding the wood steering wheel with a big smile. I love the fact that our truck is a small part of their memory about their trip to America. How cool is that? Many foreign tourists have a copy of our 10-4 centerfold hanging somewhere in their home so far away. I only wish we could be there when they tell their friends about this truck they saw, and got to sit in, when they were in America.
We’re going to keep working on that three million mile mark, and I have no doubt that she can make it – and wouldn’t it be great if she didn’t need her next overhaul until after that? Her first inframe was performed at 1,818,359 miles, so she almost made it to the two million mark. And with almost 2,100,000 miles on the odometer already, it won’t be long. We can’t wait to join that club and get another cool jacket!