10 rigs of Halloween: Seasonal, eerie and just plain scary

Outlaw Customs designed and built this 2000 Peterbilt 379 to have an industrial look with some “afterworld touches” mixed in, says Outlaw co-owner Alex Gobel. The interior was crafted to imitate the interior of H2 Hummers, and the exterior themed to the Mad Max movies of the 1980s.

This 2007 Peterbilt 379 extended hood is Jeff Botelho's personal working rig, hauling locally to and from the headquarters of his refrigerated carrier's business and Tin Can Customs, from which Botelho and crew have built more than one Big-Rig Build-Off contender. The 379 is powered by a 475-hp Caterpillar engine with Performance Diesel tuning providing up to 980 hp to the wheels.

This 2007 Peterbilt 379 extended hood is Jeff Botelho's personal working rig, hauling locally to and from the headquarters of his refrigerated carrier's business and Tin Can Customs, from which Botelho and crew have built more than one Big-Rig Build-Off contender. The 379 is powered by a 475-hp Caterpillar engine with Performance Diesel tuning providing up to 980 hp to the wheels.

Small fleet owner Jerry Beaudoin uses Triple One, a 2007 Peterbilt 379, as a business card for his company, he says. The Southington, Conn., resident added suicide doors, low-base leather seats, twin-stick shifters, solid chrome steering wheel and matching interior and exterior.

This 2000 Kenworth W900L memorializes owner Boots Chivington’s son Cub, who died in a truck accident hauling oil equipment. The truck has suicide doors, a Jones Performance hood, aftermarket fenders and bumper, orange and black leather interior and airbrush murals on the fan blades honoring oil field hauling and his son.

Ray Rodriguez' 1988 Peterbilt 379 is dubbed the Hardway, and out of its flames and details spring more than one giant flaming skull.

Robert Mulvhill painted his 1966 Peterbilt 351 to match his 1972 Chevy C-10 Cheyenne and calls the truck “the showpiece” of Hillwick Inc., his Hacckettstown, N.J.-based aggregate hauling company. The cab features a Zebra Wood floor and billet accessories, and the exterior boasts shaved door handles, suicide doors, aftermarket fenders and a hardwood deckplate.

Bob and Shelley Brinker’s 2000 Freightliner Classic XL – Legend of the Black Pearl – features pirate-themed graphics based on Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” film trilogy. The pirate motif is used throughout the interior and exterior and includes a life-size mural on the hood of Jack Sparrow alongside the likeness of their late daughter, Amie McKnight, in pirate attire. “It’s meaningful to us and tells a story. The excitement it generates makes it all worth it.” Bob says.

Muscle-car fanatic Juan Carlos Ibarra rebuilt his 1989 Peterbilt 379 in 2008 after seeing pictures of custom trucks in a magazine, he says. He gave the truck a Harley Davidson motif and added a few other small touches by pinstriping the wheels, dimpling the rims, covering the floor with leather and adding LED lights on the visor.

Dead Man’s Chest, an '89 Peterbilt 379, features a Pirates of the Caribbean theme, too, and has black-powder stacks, flies skull and cross-bone flags and even has a pirate-type bandana on its roof.

Sherry Martinez’s 1990 Peterbilt 379, affectionately known around Southern California as either The Mean Bitch or 666 is visually hell on wheels, and at every turn, an evil face, grin or skull may pop out to get you.

We’ve scared a lot of people with those mirrors,” says Lyons, who also crafted an aluminum piece that says “Mean Bitch” attached to the back of the truck. “There was a lot of design work to come up with what she liked, and then we had to get the size right so the mirrors were legal,” says Paddy Lyons, who helped build the truck.