My Purple Peterbilt
You know, a truck is just a tool but every once in a while you come across a tool that just sticks to your heart -- you think it becomes a part of you. This was the case with my purple Peterbilt dump truck.
I looked around for a good used Peterbilt for about five or six months before we found this old 1988 at a dealer in Boise. My friend, Doug Sherman who owns North Idaho Truck Center found this truck and asked me if I was interested in it. Subject to certain criteria, I commissioned him to travel to Boise and pick it up. Here is the picture of it as we purchased it. It had been an over-the-road truck for a cattle company in Wyoming. It had only 360,000 original miles (that's low miles for all you four-wheelers (car owners) out there).
We took this truck and put a dump box on her. That is another story about a very unscrupulous businessman who is no longer in business. We spent over $2000.00 repairing his mistakes and fraud. Oh well. Nonetheless, we got her on the road and aside from the normal repairs and maintenance you'd expect in a used truck, she gave us real good service for about three years. She drove like a dream; 425 Cat powerhouse and 15 speed tranny, air leaf suspension and El Dorado seats on both sides. You don't find many dump trucks with air seats on the passenger side.
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The purple Pete was useful for all kinds of work. Not only did we use it to move dirt as we dug ditches and excavated but we used it to move our equipment. We moved a shed for my sisters. One sister gave the shed to another when she moved and we transported the shed for her. Fortunately, our skid steer has forks. So we used that to load the shed on the trailer.
I'm going to miss this truck but I sold her to a real good owner. In a way, it's kind of ironic: We bought the truck, through a dealer, from a rancher in Wyoming and we sold her back to a contractor in Wyoming. She's probably glad to be home.
Yes, that's what you saw -- there is a flying pig ornament on the hood of that truck!