Peoria, Okla., resident owner-operator Steve Hurley hauls some livestock time to time in this well-decorated and built-out (and partly Texas Longhorn-themed) 1987 Peterbilt 359. Mostly, though, he runs reefer loads to New Mexico and West Texas and back, leased to Richard Edens Trucking, he says.
Powered by a B-model Caterpillar, Hurley says, the rig has been his for four years.
There are several nice touches on the exterior, from the longhorn logo on the grille to this little barbed-wire/cowbell contraption on the deckplate:
But it’s the interior that turns the most heads, from its mirrored ceiling to the habit Hurley explains in the video interview above, conducted at 4 State Trucks’ Guilty by Association truck show last week. Over the years, he’s been collecting old license plates. The floor of the Pete is covered with them:
Old signs and advertisements, too, adorn the doors and the walls of the sleeper, this shot showing the rear on the interior, passenger side, of the Unibilt conversation put on the 359 in somewhat recent memory (the Caution sign, complete with bullet holes, he says came from Roswell, N.M.):
It might have been the most popular rig out at the show with the kids, as I intimated in reporting from the show’s first day last week. That’s Hurley’s favorite part of showing it, in the end, he says, allowing kids and adults alike to climb up and join in the good humor of the whole project. “That’s why” he shows the truck, he says, “to promote a positive image and show that you can still have a little fun, too.”
Owner-operator Steve Hurley
