Why do some custom trucks have really long whatchmacallits?

If you think about it-Its very rare to see one of those long whatchamacallit sitting on the floor looking under the visor truck drivers with accident damage on the truck or tailgating, or blocking the left lane, or parked on the fuel island, or taking 2 parking spots. Seems to me most of the folks driving them look like they`ve bathed recently, too. All of that makes its own statement .

 

Apparently, it's a good thing to have Pride in that Ride.

Most of the guys I see stretched out like that are the younger guys. Imagine...young owner ops that are safe and responsible.

Some of them are old hands running immaculate old iron. Met a hand a few years back that had something different. I was at the Hook in Orange,Tx. Guy pulls in in a flat top long hood Shaker, custom sleeper, pulling a lowboy. He had the lines running off of the back of the bobtail. The truck was flat black when I saw it ( work in progress) , but I sure tought it was cool. Heck, any time you can buy a toy and use it to make money, thumbs up dude!

As far as the aero trucks go, IMO the best looking one is that 386 Pete. I've seen a couple hands stretch those out. Gotta be a flat top or mid roof.

 

In an ocean of plastic aero trucks its nice to see the streched petes lowered with them fat stacks. Iv seen them on flatbeds, reefers, curtain vans and doubles I take a pic I have an album. The only aero truck on it its mine lol. Here in Cali it will be a rare scene to see one after 2013 with Carb and all that. I feel like trucking is its own club like bikers taking pride in the rig even if its aero makes you feel good.

 

Too funny. Back in the day, the long stretched frame was the west coast look. We didn't do that in the east. The big square bumper used to be called a west coast bumper (now they call it a Texas bumper).

The first time I rolled out west, I was driving a rooster cruiser...a big red W9 aerodyne pulling a stainless steel 48 ft spread axle reefer. Stepped across 40 and stopped at the Hook in Amarillo. There was a truck show going on. So I cleaned up the truck, polished the wing on the hood, the grill, tanks and wheels and entered. Didn't place, but it was fun. There was a west coast truck sitting in the show. A flat top w9. Never seen a stretch before. It looked like he had 10 ft between the back of his sleeper and his reefer. Man, did that look dumb to me. Kept going west and stopped over at the Giant. Man, talk about an eye opener. There were all of these west coast trucks hanging out at the Giant. What an awesome truck stop!

Things were different back then. Nobody bothered you. Sure, we put a lot of miles down but we didn't have that 14 hour crap. Run a couple hundred mile, see something interesting, pull over and go look around. Get done, get back into the truck and go. Much easier driving pace.

I still love the west coast look, but I would like to build my current truck to have look like a mix between the west coast trucks...and the ruggedness of the Territories. They will run the big wheelbase trucks too, but their trucks are freakin manly. I remember going into a truckstop parking lot in northeastern Alberta, and this guy pulls in pulling a box with the heavy haul Kenworth from hell. Think oilfield truck with 56k axles, a coffin sleeper, chains and binders for a flatbed hanging down the side, a winch n the back, big floater front tires and big knobby drives pulling a van trailer. Dayuuuuuum, talk about overkill. It's like, "Driver, you delivering groceries to the bottom of a rock quarry? That's a whole lotta truck for pulling a van." Wanna talk about being trucker tough....go into the Territories. At that time, I was driving my little ol Columbia. So when I bought my truck, I took a cue out of the Canadian play book. My truck will be able to pull any load, any trailer, anywhere.