10-4 Magazine November 2023

friend in Big Pine, CA. Driving a 2016 Peterbilt with a flattop sleeper hooked to a nice Western belt trailer, Ber t hauled various items such as perlite (a type of fer tilizer), potatoes, onions, yams, and roofing granules. In 2018 he met his soon-to-be wife Lisa, and wanting to be home more to spend time with her, he took a driving job at ITS Logistics in Reno, NV. This company only had trucks with automatic transmissions, and Ber t just could not get used to driving them, so he asked the owner if he could buy his own truck and then pull their trailers. The owner agreed, so the hunt was on for the perfect truck. After some searching on the internet for a truck that would fulfill Ber t’s wants and needs, they found a really nice, brand-new, white and purple 2019 Peterbilt 389 in Davenpor t, IA. The truck, which had a 280” wheelbase and a 70” flattop sleeper, was brought home in March of 2019, and then Ber t, while still driving a company truck for ITS Logistics on the weekdays, worked on accessorizing his new ride on the weekends and getting all his legal stuff ready to go. The truck was put on the road in late April of 2019, and this was the beginning of his new life as a truck owner and operator. Pulling for ITS for only about a month, it didn’t take Ber t long to realize this deal was not going to cut it. Looking around for something else to do, Ber t found a guy in Missouri who told him that he could keep him busy if he had a hopper, so he immediately ordered a Timpte all-aluminum hopper trailer, got it a few weeks later, and began hauling various ag commodities throughout the United States – and really began stretching his legs. It was going well, but after hearing a few guys talk about how much better the rates were with a belt trailer, Ber t decided to order one from Western Trailers in Boise, ID, and then began pulling that. One day while he was at Boise Peterbilt getting some work done on his truck, one of the salesmen told Ber t about how Peterbilt was going to discontinue the old-style dash with switches and gauges and change to an all-digital design instead. This got Ber t thinking about ordering a new truck – one that would be exactly what he wanted. After some discussion with Lisa, who was now his wife, they ordered the new Peterbilt 389 in March of 2021, and it got delivered in late September of that same year. This is the truck you see on our cover and centerfold this month, and on these pages here, as well. Since their plan was to have Boise Peterbilt fully customize the truck, they ordered it with the bare minimum of accessories. The truck, a 2022 Peterbilt 389 with a 565-hp Cummins X15 with 2,050 ft-lbs. of torque, an 18-speed, 280” wheelbase, 3.26 rear gears, and a 78” standup sleeper, was ordered with the purple and white two-tone paint job and a white chassis. After the truck arrived at Boise Peterbilt, the first thing they did was pull the engine and transmission and paint them purple to match, which was a pretty major task. After that, they added a chrome air intake kit from Dynaflex to the engine, and then continued to add accessories and customize the rest of the truck. The exterior features stainless full fenders, painted purple, with the edges left stainless, (4) smooth step boxes from 12 Ga. Customs with billet step plates and painted inlays from Iowa Customs, 8” Dynaflex pipes, and a custom painted deck plate. The dealership also installed a 14” painted drop visor and window chops, added mirror lights on Shift brackets, painted the fuel and air tanks, chopped the air cleaner screens, painted the DEF tank but left two strips unpainted to look like stainless straps, and mounted a 21” tapered bumper from Valley Chrome. All of the Peterbilt emblems were painted purple and gel 10-4 Magazine / November 2023 11