When Robbie Basse of Basse Transportation started work on the fifth custom creation he's built for (at least in part) show over the years, he wanted a truck with a certain stance.
An intangible quality, really, as he described it, drawing anyone in immediately. See it sitting across a parking lot? You can't look away: "I don't know what it is, but I want to take a better look at it," as he puts it in the video up top, this week's installment in Overdrive's Custom Rigs series, soon to merge fully under the Pride & Polish category here on the website.
A little more about that shift at this link to the story of past Overdrive's Pride & Polish winner Michael Castaldi's beautiful big-bunk 2003 379.
Owner-operator Basse himself is no stranger to Pride & Polish. At the 2018 Great American Trucking Show he came up big with with his 2016 Kenworth, "Baby Blue," earning a Best of Show.
How's that for stance? Basse's most recent custom creation, a 2022 Peterbilt 389 viewed from above during Peterbilt's invitation-only Pride & Class Parade last fall in Denton, Texas, where Overdrive Senior Editor Matt Cole caught up the owner.
Basse's "Can't Stop" 2022 Peterbilt 389 is a meticulously crafted work of art with a 565-hp Cummins, 2,050 lb.-ft torque, sitting on a 310-inch wheelbase and geared with 3.08 rears, built for fuel mileage and to "have a little fun, too," he said.
Robbie Basse
A fine artist's approach to details reveals itself all around the rig.
Including in the 389's name. With this his fifth truck built to show clearly he "Can't Stop" scratching that itch, yet what do you get when you put a bunch of stop signs together? "You get a hex pattern," he noted, pointing out the stainless on the grille and elsewhere around the truck.
The approach extends inside the cab, too.
"What you see outside is what you see inside," said Basse. He lauded the EZ Pete Interiors work that had recently completed at the time of the Pride & Class parade and attendant show for Peterbilt employees. Part of that work you see here. Hex patterns are featured on the dash and in the upholstery, the floor and cab ceiling.
And the sleeper ceiling shown here, another of the hidden details Basse felt would keep any onlooker ... well, looking on.
Custom hex treatment served architectural purpose in some cases, including here on the lower driver side door pocket.
It was a three-year journey all told to get the 389 to this point, and among standout features is its sound system, with speakers inside and out.
The team handling the build cut ends of the fuel tanks out and buried subwoofers in special tank-end housings.
They didn't stop there, cleanly integrating additional speakers into the deckplate, I-panels and rear bumper. Find more views all around the rig in the video up top.
For every exterior speaker, there's a balancing one in the cab, too, Basse noted.
Dickerson Custom Trucks was a partner in the build, and Basse heralded others like EZ Pete, Semi Casual, "Mike Stewart and myself and some friends and my wife," he said. "And I couldn't say thank you enough to everybody because there's lots of people that have had a hand in this truck."
If you run into him out on the road, he said, "stop me." Guaranteed, "I'll show you something about the truck that this video probably is not going to show you."
Owner-operator Basse is headquartered in Hinton, Oklahoma.
[Related: Pride & Polish-winning '03 big-bunk Pete 379 approaches 3.5M miles]
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Robbie Basse: It all started with a stance. I wanted a stance. I wanted to look. So when you seen it across the parking lot, it just drew your eye to it and said something about that track. I don't know what it is, but I want to take a better look at it. And so that's where the inspiration of this truck came from, is that it started with a stance, and now let's put hidden secrets into it to show people what more you can see every time you look at it.
Robbie Bassey out of Hinton, Oklahoma. Bassey transportation. So my family's been in the trucking business for five generations. I just had a love from it, from being just a little kid. Started driving local on farm at 15 and still driving the day and love it. And pardon my voice, I got allergies.
So we got the truck in August of 21. It's the last fully gauge beer built for electronic dash and it's 310 wheelbase. It's titled is 22 565 Cummins 2050. Torque 308 rears. I build it for fuel mileage, but you had have been to go out front with two. And so that's where the trucks started. And then we took it to a custom builder and completely disassembled it.
One of the pictures I got that probably would make anybody cry. So this is a brand new truck. It's got seven miles on it. Nobody's ever drove it. And I get a picture of bare frame rails, bare frame rails, no axles, no motor, just bare frame rails. And you start looking at yourself going, what have I just done?
And so I did a Peterbilt tour yesterday. So I think it's really, really cool. 6.5 hours, they bring a truck off the line every 6.5 hours. So this truck was built by Peterbilt in 6.5 hours. It's taken us three years to get it where it is today. So. So the name is Truckers Can't Stop. And the overall theme was, is that if you have known me long enough, you've known that I've had quite a few show trucks.
This is show truck number five. This is show truck number five with no trailer. Is that trailers? No trailer for this truck. I'm not going to do a show trailer. So I named the truck. Can't Stop to come off the theme of I literally can't stop. I mean, you're going to build your fifth show truck. Like you really have some issues you can't stop.
Well, we customized pretty much everything so easy. Pete just put a brand new interior in his truck. Never been done before. It's a total different interior than what anybody seen, and it's the first time I've seen an interior flow with a custom theme that we have from the outside of the truck to the inside of the truck. We didn't just bring the colors, we brought the whole theme of the truck of Can't Stop.
And so as you look at the little points of like, the stainless steel and the truck and it's got this hex pattern, you could see it in the video, you see all this hex pattern. Everybody's like, oh, it's a beautiful pattern where you come up with hex, focus on just one of those emblems and their stop signs. You put a bunch of stop signs together, you get a hex pattern, what's the name of the truck stop?
And that's where that theme comes, and that's where it really evolved. So the sound system, my idea was to have some boat speakers in the frame rails on a separate switch. And like I said, we made a few wrong turns, got lost in Mexico, drank some tequila, came back, we took perfectly good fuel tanks, cut the ends of them out and buried subwoofers in the field tanks.
They're full working fuel tanks with subwoofers in them. They built a beautiful one piece deck plate with speakers all the way down. It built I panels with speakers in it. But one thing we paid attention to the detail is, is when you see all the speakers outside, you have to keep in mind I have the same amount of speakers inside, so you're going to see four subwoofers outside.
There's four subwoofers inside. We kept everything equal. What you see outside is what you see inside. And we tried to pull that through all the way through this build.
So the truck comes from the factory, this color, I ordered it this color. We have not changed that. Okay. We did change the red motor that got repainted and we changed some of the paint throughout and added gray into different areas. But this is the original color of the truck from the factory.
And we still have the block which came from the factory as well. We deviate off that. We just made a couple other changes along the way.
There's been lots of people, easy Pete and my casual and Mike Stewart and self and some friends and my wife and I couldn't say thank you enough to everybody because there's lots of people that have had a hand in this truck. So it's not one single person. Everybody's had a hand in this truck, and if you do see me out with it, stop me.
I'll show you something about the truck that this video probably not going to show you. So when you come out to a show or you see it at a fuel stop, come out and talk to me, say hi. I'll show you something about the truck. Yeah, because it's a lot of fun.
