Overdrive

CUSTOM RIGS 42 | Overdrive | June 2017 P atriotism, often focusing on the military, has been a peren- nial theme among custom truck owners. It's not often, though, that you see a truck honoring police offi cers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Stephanie and Jacob Robak brought just such a truck to compete in the PKY Truck Beauty Championship at the Mid- America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, in March. The Robaks own Robak Auto Transport, based in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and are leased to Motor Car Auto Carriers. When it came time to outfi t their third truck, a 2006 Peterbilt 379, "I said that I wanted a turn design- ing it," Stephanie said. She handles the paper- work for their business, but she also works as a police offi cer and 911 dispatcher. "I wanted to get every- body aware that police offi cers' lives do matter," she says. "They matter to communities that have lost them, they matter to families who've lost them. We're everyday people like everybody else, and we walk around with targets on our backs because of the jobs that we do, but we love our jobs. This truck is dedicated to the people who have lost their lives doing their jobs." Stephanie came up with a design using photographs of offi cers and crime scenes. Each side of the cab portrays images related to the deaths of offi cers – one from Cold Spring and an- other from St. Joseph, both in the St. Cloud region. An image on the hood shows Ranger, a service canine who died in action. Car haulers' touching tribute to police BY MAX HEINE Carl Carstens and Austin Mielczarek of Rockwood Products did much of the work. The truck's entire interior has been redone. Stephanie Robak works with her husband in their business when she's not on the job as a police officer. The Peterbilt 379 is a short hood to compensate for its long back end. Competing in this year's PKY Truck Beauty Champions hip at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, the truck won First in working truck bobtail and working truck bobtail lights, and Second in working truck interior cab. Stephanie Robak designed the graphics as a tribute to fallen police officers and found them from local archives near St. Cloud. See the truck and an interview with Stephanie Robak at the Custom Rigs playlist at youtube. com/OverdriveMag.

• Cover
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