Sometimes when an owner builds a truck, it’s purely for fun. In the case of this Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based trio, the 1963 Kenworth W922 featured here exemplifies that.
When Dale Watts and brothers Charlie and Eddie Price were in the market for a truck, Watts and Charlie Price each owned classic Chevrolet Camaros, and they were looking to build a truck to haul them in for car shows.
Watts, 72, is a lifelong diesel mechanic, and the Prices grew up around the trucking business. They’ve been building vehicles together for years, primarily to go to NASCAR races, camping in the infields of various tracks, as well as truck shows. They took the ultra-long-wheelbase 922 this year to the American Truck Historical Society's Annual Convention in Springfield, Missouri.
First came a school bus that they converted to a camper, then came a 1969 Kenworth needlenose that Watts said “was like a Dale Earnhardt tribute truck because it was black and we had a number 3 painted on the side of it.”
With each build, “we changed a lot” with the “stuff that we wanted to make it better, and to travel in.”
To find this ’63 model, Watts said he scoured the country, going “all the way to California looking for an older-model, needlenose Kenworth truck.”
It turned out that he only needed to look down the road. A friend of his told him there was a truck like he was looking for within five miles of his house.
“I went and looked at this truck, and … it was basically a cab and chassis,” he said. “There was a tree growing up in the middle of it.”
This photo, hanging inside the truck, shows the original condition of the unit when Watts and team started on the build.
He had it towed to his shop, and the team got to work, effectively converting it into an RV. The original intent, as noted, was to build it for enclosed car-haul, but Watts sold his '69 Camaro. The team then turned the 922 into something they could go to races in and take to truck shows.
During the buildout, nothing on the truck went untouched -- new engine, transmission, rear ends, air ride, and of course the frame stretched to a grand-total 45 feet bumper to bumper.
It sports a 350-hp Cummins Big Cam with a 9-speed overdrive transmission.
Watts didn't know the exact wheelbase other than “long,” he said. As noted, it's 45 feet long all told.
Interior's about what you would expect to see in an RV. In fact, most of it came out of a salvaged one the trio bought. “We took it apart and adapted it” to fit the truck, he said: cabinets, stove, refrigerator, sofa. “We didn’t, like, build the cabinets or none of that stuff because we’re mechanics, we’re not woodworking people. So, that’s what we did.”
As the project came along, “we had never really [seen] one that was built like this,” Watts said, “so it was just an idea that we’d come up with and we just figured, you know, ain’t nobody else got one like it.”
Today, Watts and the Prices take the truck to NASCAR and NHRA races in and around the Southeast, primarily, once out to the Grand Canyon on a vacation.
Checkered flags on the hood give a good indication of the truck's primary purpose these days -- hauling its owners around to race tracks.
“We use it, you know,” Watts said. “It’s not just something that sits there all the time. You can pretty much go anywhere you want to go in it, except California. They won’t let you in California with this. Engine’s too old.”
The build, which Watts said will never truly be complete, has been in the works since 2003. They made their first trip in it around 2008 to the NHRA drag races at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee and have been working on it and traveling in it ever since.
[Related: Near-original 1963 Kenworth 921 hauled same loads for 49 years]
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