Our twist on that old movie title is not quite accurate. What looks like an 18-wheeler that's been left out in the rain is actually a combination of high-tech parts, six months of hard work, and lots of imagination.
It's the brainchild of Greg Severt, owner of Severt Trucking, a long-haul operation with more than 40 trucks, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Greg has owned a dozen or so custom vehicles in the last 30 years, but they've just been for fun. When it comes to work, "I've had Peterbilts all my life," Greg said. "And I've always thought about setting one on a pickup frame." That's just what he did. What you're looking at is a combination of a fullsize Peterbilt cab, complete with a tilt front end mated to a fullsize Chevrolet pickup bed. The custom body rests on a 1-ton '05 Dodge Ram chassis. Greg knew the idea would work after having seen a similar approach on a Chevrolet a couple of years ago at a truck stop in Arizona. He began searching for a wreck, hoping to find one that was only a couple years old with damaged sheetmetal, but Greg had no luck. Rather than give up on the idea, he bought a brand-new Dodge and drove it less than a week before tearing it apart.
Just like the big rigs, Severt's truck has a tilt-forward front end to allow for engine access, with gas struts holding it in place.
Starting with the factory-fresh, '05 Dodge 3500 Ram pickup, equipped with a Cummins turbodiesel and four-wheel drive, Greg's head mechanic, Mark Kalina, began measuring the truck. They already had a '94 Peterbilt cab and hood in the shop, and they located an aftermarket bed designed for a fullsize '53 Chevrolet. Like almost every custom that's built from the ground up, the process began with the wheels. To get the aggressive look he was after, Greg chose 20-inch Weld Racing rims wrapped with 40X13.50-R20LT Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ tires.
Rolling down the highway, the 380hp truck is in its element. Lighter than the original Dodge, thanks to its new aluminum cab and energized by a Bully Dog chip, the truck is quick and gets about 20 mpg.
With the big wheels mounted on the stripped Dodge 1-ton chassis, the tilt front end from the Peterbilt was hoisted into place and adjusted until the wheel openings matched the front tires. Once the fenders and wheels were centered, the cab was mated to the hood and the assembly was attached to the Dodge chassis. The bed was mounted to the rear of the cab, and the pair of shortened Peterbilt fenders were centered over the rear tires to create a Stepside look. Mark shaped the sheetmetal that covers the gap between the bed and the new running boards, then constructed a rear pan to hold the four Corvette-style, LED taillights.