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.
The teal-and-purple paint scheme was on the 389 from the factory, and lends the truck its name,
The colors caught my eye to start, likewise the whimsical hood ornament.
