In the video above, the latest in Overdrive's Custom Rigs weekly series, track back to the beginning of May this year to the Crossroads Truck Meet in California, Missouri, where small fleet owner-operator Harlan Martin showed the 2023 Peterbilt 389 and 2018 Eby livestock hauler you'll see there.
Harlan Martin and his wife, Andrea, out at the Crossroads meet
When we talked in May the Martins, following in the footsteps of their father's small-trucking-business past, were running 13 total trucks with a mix of owner-operators and company drivers. The company pulls "reefer, end dumps, RGN, some belly dumps" and livestock trailers, too, Martin said. Little Brothers owns "at least 30" total trailers to accommodate power units when freight demand shifts.
"When one thing slows down you can switch to the other," he noted of the seasonal nature of the company's work and its efforts to diversify to stay busy and profitable.
Martin and company bought the 2023 Pete brand-new with a Cummins X15 in it. At the get-go Martin pulled and sold the X15 in exchange for a reman 2WS Caterpillar engine. "Fewer emissions problems," he said.
The teal-and-purple paint scheme was on the 389 from the factory, and lends the truck its name, "Barney," after everybody's favorite kids-show dinosaur.
The colors caught my eye to start, likewise the whimsical hood ornament.
"A lot of the chrome shops have it," Martin noted of the shotgun bunny, which he picked up from a shop owner local to his area. The bunny is carried through to the lower passenger-side door window with a see-through decal also featuring the truck's name.
Martin runs his own LB Customs as a side business, and among work the company's done for others is a four-bag steer-axle air ride in some ways mimicking the factory front air ride but engineered to allow for show with the truck more or less on the ground. To wit:
It allows the 310-inch-wheelbase rig to still maintain close to factory ride height fully aired up, Martin noted, particularly useful for his end dump work. (It rolls about 2 inches lower than factory ride height.) It's not the only mods Martin's done through LB (yes, that's for 'Little Brothers') Customs. Talladega hump fenders on the truck, for instance, feature custom blind-mount brackets he designed.
He runs through a bevy of other custom touches in the video, from a 12 Ga. Customs grille and other bright parts and paint on the fuel tanks to stacks and chop-top air cleaners. The Eby trailer's mods include an added lift axle, back and top trailer rails polished to give it more of a clean look, and lights on the trailer replaced with JML Kustoms glass watermelons front to back. Plenty of those inside the cab, too, which remains a work in progress outside the leather on the floor and a custom Retro steering wheel.
"Once you go to the big wheel and you get in something else with a small wheel" it just doesn't feel right, Martin said. It does make for "a lot more arm movement for the same turning" if you're backing and jacking in tight quarters.
Martin's plan? Next up, door panels.
Hear more from Martin and fellow Wisconsin-headquartered owner-operator Lucas Zach in the edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast below.
[Related: Truck-ownership traditions staying alive: Owner-operators Lucas Zach, Harlan Martin]
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