Pimp my truck
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Paint job, leather seats, proper boom-box stereo, and more gadgets than you can shake a stick at, Truck & Driver’s Pimp My Truck is reaching a climax. CM talks to the people who got involved with the project Words: Steve Banner Wary of committing themselves to acquiring a new truck in an uncertain economic climate, operators are pondering how best to rejuvenate the one they have.
That need not involve going completely over the top in the style of the Pimp My Truck project orchestrated by Commercial Motor’s sister magazine Truck & Driver. Not everyone wants a silver and purple dashboard and leather seats, not to mention an audio system that can be heard on Mars. What they may want, however, is their tractor unit’s chassis shot-blasted and repainted, and the cab repainted too. The former exercise might cost £1,500, the latter perhaps £4,000 for a standard paint job.
If you want a custom paint job featuring, say, all the characters in Lord of the Rings or Clint Eastwood reprising the various movie characters he’s played over the years, then you’re going to need a big cheque book, says Mark Lucas, manager of Scania dealer Keltruck’s Newark, Nottinghamshire depot. “I’ve known people who spent £20,000 on a truck, albeit one that they’re proposing to keep for a long time,” he observes.
Many dealers nationwide, including Keltruck, can arrange for trucks to be painted both externally and internally and can install any number of different extras too. In some cases, they can be used to enhance the appeal of an otherwise run-of-the-mill used truck being offered for sale. Buyers can also ask for their particular choice of goodies to be itted either before or after taking delivery.
Some extras that make a truck look distinctive have a practical aspect to them too, points out Kathye-Ann Henderson, marketing manager at Eminox. Like all the companies mentioned on these pages, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire-based exhaust specialist Eminox has been involved in Pimp My Truck, proits from which will be donated to Help for Heroes.
“Vertical exhaust stacks free up chassis space, prevent the exhaust from being damaged if you have to drive down rough roads – if you go in and out of quarries regularly, for example – and mean that exhaust gases are released way above people’s heads rather than close to the ground,” she says.
As with a fancy paint job however, stacks and a shiny heat shield do not come cheap – think in terms of several thousand pounds – especially if your truck is Euro-4/5.
Costly after-treatment
“The problem is that you have to take the after-treatment that’s required into account, and that makes relocating everything more expensive,” she says. “Things are much easier if the vehicle is Euro-3.” Not surprisingly, some customers have opted to save money by leaving the exhaust system where it is and having a dummy stack installed instead, purely for the look. Others who fancy twin stacks often opt for a genuine one plus a dummy.
Eminox always works in stainless steel, says Henderson, a material favoured by truck customising specialist and haulier Gary Coles (pictured opposite) for catwalks too. “I’ve had a stainless steel chequerplate catwalk on one of our vehicles for 10 years now, and it still looks good,” he reports. “Alloy is cheaper, but doesn’t last as well.” Based in Banbury, Coles Transport runs 10 trucks engaged on a broad assortment of work that encompasses everything from international removals to and from Spain to transporting life-sized models of dinosaurs. “One of those going round the M25 on the back of a low-loader is quite a sight,” he remarks.
The irm’s own trucks are customised in many different ways, and as a consequence of its activities in this area the company markets all sorts of stainless steel accessories to truck enthusiasts. “A stainless steel bumper for the Scania 4 Series is one of our best-sellers,” says Coles.
It carries out customisation work too, and can strip and completely transform a cab interior. Alloy wheels can enhance a truck’s appearance and again bring useful business beneits, especially when it comes to reducing unladen weight and boosting payload capacity. A steel wheel on a tractor unit weighs around 41kg, as opposed to roughly 23kg for a forged aluminium Alcoa wheel from a company such as Tyretracks of Eccleshall in Staffordshire, a well-known Alcoa supplier.
Forged aluminium wheels have the further advantages that they do not require painting, do not corrode, vibrate less than their steel equivalents, ride more truly and are said to be up to ive times stronger. A further and sometimes unrecognised beneit, according to their advocates, is that they offer up to 1% better fuel consumption because it takes less effort to turn an alloy wheel than it does to turn its steel counterpart.
Paying for quality
As with so many other embellishments, albeit practical ones, there is a price to pay. Alloys can cost up to three times more than their steel counterparts, but should last for up to 10 to 15 years if they are properly looked after.
Opt for alloys and you should opt for a decent set of tyres to go with them. The Pimp My Truck Scania is itted with Michelin Energy SaverGreens, and there is no reason why you should not pick out the tyre manufacturer’s name on the sidewall in white.
Side skirts from suppliers such as SB Components of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire can improve a truck’s looks. Additional lighting – maybe four spotlights mounted on a bar on the front of the cab plus half-adozen spotlights ixed on a bar on the roof – can help turn heads as well as coming in handy if you need to light up a yard on a dark night. Leaving them on while you are driving is often a no-no because of the risk of dazzling oncoming drivers, but the small pilot lights they usually include – often featuring a ring of LEDs too – should not create any problems.
Spotlights are usually either clear or blue, with prices ranging from around £120 for four, to as much as £80 to £100 for just one. Never forget that it is an offence to show a red light to the front of the truck.
Names to watch out for here include Kelsa for light bars, Hella for spotlights and Spatz for all sorts of related equipment. Turning to the inside of the truck, £1,000 will get you the seats retrimmed in leather. Spend more like £3,000 to £4,000 and you can have the doors and the interior panels trimmed in leather too, not to mention the steering wheel.
Fork out even more and you can opt for two-tone leather and contemplate having it tastefully perforated, or perhaps luted; maybe even patterned. You can think about having the dashboard painted too, to match the seats or the cab’s exterior.
Steer clear of light colours if you are in an industry where you cannot help but get dirty from time to time. ■