Whatever you’ve got planned for tomorrow, whether on the road or at home, here’s a Happy Thanksgiving from myself and everyone here at Overdrive. Without all of you, our lives don’t work — in more ways than one. And we appreciate it.
Bonus: We’re also thankful, and suspect you will be, too, for this view on the tank doubles-pulling 1970 Kenworth W925 narrow nose of Evanston, Wyo.-based Martin Herman. Herman has been giving the rig a full working restoration inside and out for the better part of the last decade — a story we’ll tell in more depth at a later date, as it’s quite a remarkable one. The second half of this year marks the first that he’s been back to trucking full-time after many years teaching auto shop at a local high school and trucking only in the summers. Otherwise, he’s got two and a half decades of hauling in his past.
The 1970 KW around the time Herman started work on it about a decade ago.He’ll be home in Evanston for Thanksgiving tomorrow, where four grown daughters and other associated family are gathering for the holiday. “We’ll be home,” he says, with some time off from hauling with authority as HNH Trucking under contract to the Dustbusters manufacturer of dust-control and de-icing products used on regional roadways.
Speaking of which, “we’ll try to stay out of the snow,” Herman adds.
He joins about 65% of you who will be getting home for the holiday this year, judging by responses to the poll that published yesterday, as of this morning:
That’s a number that tracks closely to the last time we asked the question around Thanksgiving three years ago.
In any case, however you’re spending the day and the remainder of the holidays upcoming, here’s looking forward to more about this gem of a classic, found by Herman in his area and bought from a friend who bought it himself before Herman could get to it. Among much obvious exterior work and the addition of the coffin sleeper, it’s under the hood where perhaps its most interesting secrets lie.
And … a peek into the cab, where there’s also been plenty of finishing work done by Herman.Herman worked with Utah-based Gillett Diesel for custom pieces to transform the Big Cam 400 Cummins into something better resembling the later Cummins N14, including its turbo.
“It’s kind of a Frankenstein,” he says. “I’m pulling with 550 Cats all day long, grossing about 110-113,000 lbs. All my friends call it an ‘N13-and-a-half.'”
It originally had a 5 and 4 transmission, swapped in favor of a 13 speed today.
Other attributes inside: “I got a 24-inch flatscreen TV” to accompany the 36-inch coffin sleeper, Herman says. a diesel-fired heater, a stripe design Herman fashioned himself as an amalgam of two KW classics, a stereo system with two six-and-a-half-inch speakers and two 10-inch woofers, two Rockford Fosgate amps that power it.And the power steering: “Armstrong,” Herman laughs. “It’s great rolling down the road,” though “not as friendly jockeying around a lot.”
Since he went out June 1 this year in the unit, trucking continuously up to the present, he’s put on 50,000 miles and going strong.
Enjoy the holiday, owner-ops, and keep the tips coming.
