Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85429
roadside attractions TRUCK GALLERY Designed to please Independent Laird Fuller, of Broomsfield, Colo., parked his 1995 Peterbilt 379, equipped with a 435-hp Caterpillar and 18-speed transmission, for seven months to customize nearly every inch of it. With the help of a dozen friends and Vinny's Design of Henderson, Colo., Fuller did a near complete rebuild, adding a left sleeper door and suiciding all other doors. Custom fuel tanks from AlumiTank and a 30-inch-stretched frame complete the package. Geib's Gambler Waldo, Wis., resident Gary Geib drives this quad-axle 2006 Western Star for Silver Nagel Trucking. Geib uses the dump to haul gravel, sand and topsoil. He christened the rig Gambler Trucking because, he says, people say he resembles country music singer Kenny Rogers. The truck is powered by a 475-hp Caterpillar and an 18-speed transmission. LESSONS LEARNED The benefit of owning Gold mine dreams SUBMIT YOUR PHOTO a rolling 'doghouse' Jenni Reynolds-Kebler and her husband, Robert Kebler, took a company driver job at a carrier with a no-pet policy, so they boarded their dog, Gizmo (pictured), with acquaintances near their Oregon home. But as Reynolds-Kebler detailed in her "Grizzly tales of the Gizanator" note on Facebook in February, her calls to check in started going unanswered. When she got a "this line has been disconnected" message, she began to try whatever social media avenue or email address she could. "I simply stated, 'call me ASAP!'" she wrote. Turns out Gizmo's caretakers had given the dog to an acquaintance, and was fine. After that, Reynolds-Kebler says, they bought a 2005 Freightliner Columbia and leased to Gordon Trucking. They call it a "Gizmo doghouse on 18 wheels." Bright Wright, 21, of Montrose, Colo., hauls limestone to coal mines with his '96 Peterbilt 379. While working in Nevada gold mines through age 19, he says, "I saved all my money and bought my truck and went to work for Colorado Lime." He and his father are leased to the company, and they haul together. The truck's pictured here in front of the Dillon Pinnacles and Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado. To display your truck online and have it considered for Overdrive's Truck Gallery, go to the Reader Truck Gallery at www.OverdriveOnline.com. Never tire when you're owed money Have you ever had casing credits delayed with a new tire purchase? Owner-operator Phil Madsen hadn't either until an Arizona tire dealer told him it had "to X-ray our old tires first and give credit only if they pass the test," he wrote on his Learning Something New Every Day blog Feb. 8. Because of their schedule, he and his expediting partner and wife, Diane, had to do business and move on. Months passed with no check for the credits arriving. Calls to the dealer went unanswered. On Feb. 19, Madsen learned perseverance pays: "Diane and I will not have to go to war to get the money a tire dealer owes us for casing credits. Learned when the check arrived." Follow Madsen's daily education via overdriveonline.com/madsen. 14 OVERDRIVE APRIL 2012