• Frame

The frame came off of a 389 series ’84 Peterbilt that was abandoned at the Willisburg exit truck stop back in ’91. Sheriff said it must’ve been some fellas outta Louisville, but we all know it was Johnny Boone’s boys that took it. They had a good crop that year and needed something to move it all in. Old man Krimm had his step-boy sweep the back out before he put it up for auction. Said the boy got high from just the shake that was floating around back there.

Anyway, we had Charlie Edwards whip us up some mounting brackets to hold the cab down tighter to the frame to keep the nose from lifting off going down the parkway. He cut those out of the same pieces of railroad steel he makes them knife blades from, so you know they’re harder than a whore’s heart.

This is where she started! The cab was overrun with squirrels and some kinda weird ass mold so we replaced it.

• Cab

The cab is from the old Huey that was left out back of the trailer that Bailey fella was renting off of 55 heading out of town. Some folks say he stole it from the National Guard after he got back from Iraq, but nobody ever came to get him for it.  After he got locked up for baiting deer in and killing them with them buried propane tanks, nobody had any use for it.

• Axles

The frame sits over top of 12,000 lb Eaton axles with mostly new airbags and chambers and slack adjusters.

• Radar

Original radar from the Huey is still there, but those damn DOT boys cut our wiring harness out after a bout of skipping weigh-ins.

• Fuel tanks

Fuel tanks are custom, and have a false bottom to them. Top of the tank holds 15 gallons of regular diesel, but the bottom portion connects in to an auxillary tank that’ll carry 135 gallons of cherry flavored diesel in case any John Laws wanna dip test it.

• Tires

Tires are mostly good. They’re retreads, but there’s still plenty of life left in them, and the ones on the back are still under warranty from Willy Mack’s tire & vape shop over off the bypass. We’ve still got the receipt for them.

• Defensive bumper

The bumper was a custom deal we had Ethel Merz weld up for us, but it was one he did in the morning and not one of them afternoon jobs we’ve seen him put out. I swear that man can lay down a bead like a stack a dimes but you’ve gotta catch him sober! He wired it all up to a battery bank and power inverter set up to run 220 volts to a plug, but it shorted out and now the bumper gets electrified if it runs long enough. It takes some getting used to, but it’s enough to keep the ugly lot lizards from sitting on the bumper while you’re fueling it up.

RIDE THE LIGHTNING! We rigged up the bumper good. Lot lizards, highwaymen, sassy highway troopers…this will warn ’em off!

• Comms & Entertainment

All that extra voltage comes in handy when you’re trying to get out on the kenwood radio we installed in it. We had Nate over at Jennings HAM & CB Radio Parts Palace make us a custom antenna that’ll run that kenwood or a baofeng in case of any emergencys happening. The console doubles as a faraday box, and we’ve been keeping an MP3 player with every Willie Nelson, Jerry Reed, CW McCall and David Allan Coe song we could download on it.

The sweet serenades of them fellas are national treasures!!!!

Most of these controls don’t do nothing anymore, but the important ones are wired in ~ish. A couple of them might turn on the windshield wipers.

• Motor

The original 3406b CAT motor was junk, but we threw a rebuilt 400 big cam Cummins in it right out of the gate. Not sure how many actual miles are on that Cummins on account of the dash displaying flight hours, but it’s strong and would pull an ATM out of a Love’s fuel station with an ungreased logging chain pretty easily…allegedly.

Might not look like much, but this baby makes our post apocalyptic truck GET IT. And now, you can get it. And maybe some Rotel too.

• Transmission

Transmission was rebuilt recently by Conrad over at Wholesale Auto Parts and it’s an Allison 18 speed. 3rd gear still sticks a little, but we just skip it and go on to 4th anyway. Not only is it strong, but it’s fast too! This rig outran the LaGrange boys after we used it to repo that Econoline Van they bought and tried to claim religious exemption on the taxes for. That oldest boy, Brad, said something about them being blessed by the serpent and not believing in taxes paid to a mortal man.

• Paint job

Custom mix Cerakote paint job on the whole thing was done by Jon at Bad Moon Armory. He free-handed most of it, but stenciled in the EAGlE on the door after I told him that Over The Top was one of Stallone’s best films. He said an Eagle beats a Hawk any day of the week, and I tend to agree with him. Though any post apocalyptic truck looks better with some raptor drip.