10-4 Magazine April 2023

10-4 Magazine / April 2023 11 right time – God’s time – it finally happened, and now they couldn’t be happier. When they were first dating, Kellie went out trucking with Bruce often and really enjoyed it. And she was always asking questions – par tly because she’s inquisitive, and par tly because she was secretly thinking about becoming a truck driver. Eventually, she enrolled in truck driving school without telling Bruce, and then star ted asking him if he would want to sell his truck. She claimed she had a close friend that was really interested in it, but this friend wanted the best deal possible. Bruce was flabbergasted because his truck wasn’t even for sale! At some point he threw out a number, and that is when Kellie confessed that she would be the buyer. After getting her CDL (despite the “bicycle” incident during her driving test), the two star ted running as a team, and Bruce ordered his new truck – a 2020 Peterbilt 389 painted legendary gray with a viper red frame. The truck, which is powered by a Cummins X15 with 750-hp, hooked to an 18-speed and 3.25 rears, with a 295” wheelbase, arrived in February of 2020 and was immediately taken to Stuar t Loewen at Nor Cal Customs in Corning, CA to be customized. The truck spent about a month at Nor Cal Customs where it was fitted with air ride on the front, double-round headlights on Double JJ brackets, custom light bars, die-cast cab lights, and painted tanks. It also got air cleaner lights, a painted visor, drop panels, 8” pipes, an 18” VCP bumper, painted rear half-fenders on custom hidden brackets, new step box covers with billet step plates, a painted deck plate and shock box cover, and a real 3-bell Nathan train horn off a locomotive. To finish it off, viper red vinyl stripes, done by Wonderland Signs in Redding, were applied to the truck’s exterior. Once Bruce’s “Legend” truck was ready to roll, Kellie went out on her own in Bruce’s old truck – which was now her truck – along with a 2000 East 45x96 spread-axle flatbed (which she proclaimed was included in the truck purchase). This truck was Bruce’s viper red 2010 Peterbilt 389 mentioned before, which Kellie affectionately called “Clifford the Big Red Truck” or “Clifford” for shor t. Since Kellie’s latest truck is known as C2 (Clifford 2), they now refer to the first red truck as C1 (Clifford 1). Now, they were trucking together, but in separate trucks! Kellie drove C1 for about a year, and once it was established that she wanted to continue this trucking thing, they ordered her a new truck in 2021. Searching high and low for a new truck with an old-style dash, they did not want one with the new digital display. Eventually, they found a dealer in Nebraska that had a few “build slots” available, so they ordered the truck through that place. For those of you who don’t know what a “build slot” is, it’s when you buy a truck before its even built. The factory allocates a cer tain number of trucks to each dealership, and each of those trucks is basically a reserved “slot” in production at the plant. Those slots are sold, and then the customer can (usually) make some modifications to the actual build to get what they want. But without a slot, you got nothin! So, 75 changes later, Kellie’s truck was on its way. Arriving in July of 2022, the viper red Peterbilt 389 with a black frame came equipped with a 565-hp X15 Cummins with 2,050 torque, an 18-speed, Low Low AirLeaf suspension, a car-hauler front axle, a flat cab, a 63” flat top sleeper, and a 280” wheelbase. After getting the truck home from Nebraska, some of the work was done by Brent McGrath of Brent’s Custom Trucks in White City, OR, but a lot of the work was done by Bruce and Kellie themselves. While at Brent’s, the breathers were chopped, the steps and drop panels were installed, breather lights were added, along with a custom rear light bar, a new grill, and custom billet step plates, made by Brent. He also made the red “Clifford” dog that is mounted in the lower corner of the grill. Some of the things that Bruce and Kellie did themselves included swapping the headlights to double-rounds on Double JJ brackets, installing (and painting) the rear half-fenders on hidden brackets from Nor Cal Customs, Bruce mounted the factory heated/power mirrors on painted 12 Ga. Customs mirror brackets, and an 18” VCP bumper was added. They also painted and installed the one piece deck plate, conver ted the sliding fifth wheel to a fixed unit that is lower, wrapped the DEF tank in chrome, and mounted 8” Lincoln pipes. A polished visor with painted edges (done by Kellie) was installed, along with matching window chops, and then the back of the visor was covered in a mural painted by a friend that features all of Kellie’s past dogs. Proud of her work, Kellie painted all the nut covers on her frame red, which was not an easy job. She also installed clear beehive-style lenses on all her lights, and to give them a more “smokey” look, she painted the back of each light (inside) black. A few final touches behind the sleeper included nine load lights, a painted