Special Feature: By Ryan Rosetta Some trucks are made famous by their work, others by the stories they carry, and some by the miles they travel on the open roads – or in this case, the logging roads. For Willie Brown out of Dayton, Oregon, his unique 2003 Peterbilt 362 twin steer is a little bit of all three. At first glance, this cabover stands out from today’s long-hooded conventionals, but this truck isn’t your ordinary 362. Behind the cab sits a custom setup designed specifically for hauling some of the Pacific Northwest’s biggest timber products (from 32-foot logs to 110-foot poles). Powered by a 12.7 Detroit Diesel Series 60 with about 500 horsepower, backed with an Eaton 18-speed, this Peterbilt is built to handle whatever the job throws at it. Why a twin steer? Well, Willie said he chose this truck because of the price at first, he wasn’t looking for a twin steer, but he was looking for a short cab cabover, so when he saw this twin steer truck, he thought, “Why wouldn’t it work?” At that point, nobody else he knew had done it, so he tried it! In the end, the dual front axles allow Willie to haul more weight and maneuver better than a single steer axle setup. Having spent over 35 years in the trucking industry, Willie’s experience shows in the little details of his truck. The truck originally started its life as a 4-axle with a liquid nitrogen tank before being transformed into the log and pole hauling machine it is today. To be turned into a log truck, Willie had to add a few things such as a lift axle, stinger, logging bunk, headache rack, frame decking, and multiple custom modifications to make it perfect for his daily work. Paired with a specifically modified Peerless log jeep from Canada and a custom-built trailer section from Pederson Log Trailers in Bellingham, Washington, this combo is perfectly built to haul long timber throughout the Pacific Northwest. The truck itself has a little bit of history. Willie purchased the truck at a dealer in Covington, Tennessee, after it went through a Ritchie Bros. auction. When he originally bought the truck, it only had 186,000 miles and roughly about 4,500 hours on the engine, and much of that time was idle time because of the liquid nitrogen tank on the back. So, this twin steer cabover truck had a pretty easy life before beginning its second career as a log truck. Like many trucks, this Peterbilt has evolved over time. Following a bad accident where the truck rolled over, Willie replaced the cab guard and cab, mixing parts from both the original cab and a donor replacement cab he bought (an old hay truck that was owned by Nick Nimmo Hay out of Galt, CA). The instrument cluster from the hay truck cab found a new home in the log truck cab, while the interior was upgraded from a basic blue and gray trim with no upper console to a gray velvet with an upper console. Though he searched for a tilt 28 10-4 Magazine / August 2026 steering column during the rebuilding process, finding one proved to be very difficult, so the truck ended up with another non-tilting column out of an older Peterbilt 362. During the rebuild, the truck also went from white to red. Sitting on a 280-inch wheelbase and rolling on 22.5-inch rubber, the truck has a unique suspension setup that you don’t see every day. In the front, the twin steer axle setup, which Willie describes as basically a trailer’s suspension, uses an equalizer. This equalizer is between the front and back steer axles, and like a trailer, the DOT cannot single one steer axle out, they have to weigh both as a group, like dual-axle drive tires. A Peterbilt AirTrac suspension in the back gives the truck a smooth ride while hauling those heavy loads. The truck originally came with 4.88 rear gears, but Willie changed them to 4.33 rears to better suit his log-hauling needs. The truck’s dual stacks give it a balanced look, but only the passenger side is functional. It’s a simple detail that adds to the truck’s personality and goes to show that even a hard-working log truck can have a little bit of style. A UNIQUE LOGGER
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