A customized IMT Dominator IV service body stretches the truck’s total length to 38.5 feet
Service Truck Magazine featured Randy Bostic’s mammoth service truck in our May-June 2015 issue. That “dream truck” ended up being the prototype for his latest service truck, based on a 2017 Peterbilt 389 “glider kit.”
“A glider kit is a basic truck chassis and body, (purchased) without the engine, transmission and drivetrain,” says Bostic, owner and lead mechanic at Iron Horse Maintenance in St. Clairsville, Ohio. “That way I could install a pre-emission-control engine. For as much as I run the engine for the crane and PTO, it just doesn’t pay to have an engine with all the emission-control stuff on it.”
Bostic’s motto is “Go big or go home,” and his customized powertrain reflects that theme. He had Antrim Diesel in Greencastle, Pa., tweak a C15 Caterpillar, whose serial number starts with the legendary “6NZ” prefix, to turn an easy 800 horsepower. That powerhouse was bolted to a 13-speed Fuller-Eaton 2,250 foot-pound transmission with internals upgraded to 2,350 foot-pound specs. The transmission drives through custom-built drive shafts to a 46,000-pound twin-screw rear end riding on Peterbilt’s Air Trac suspension.
The cab is as tricked-out as the chassis. Painted Bahama blue pearl metallic, the exterior has twin, chromed Donnellson 15-inch air cleaners, seven-inch chromed straight exhausts, tinted windows, custom stainless steel grille and grille surround, and a front chrome bumper (custom-built by 12-Gauge Customs in Guelph, Ont.) that uses air cylinders to move it four inches forward then eight inches upward.
“It helps to be able to raise that bumper for extra clearance,” Bostic says. “I’ve never had it stuck. It’s pretty amazing what I can get through with the twin-screw rear axles. She’s definitely not a highway queen.”
IMT Dominator IV service body stretches the truck’s total length to 38.5 feet
A customized IMT Dominator IV service body stretches the truck’s total length to 38.5 feet. QT Equipment in Akron, Ohio worked with IMT to give Bostic a customized Dominator IV body.
“I prefer my lights and accessories to be mounted in the bumper rather than on top, and I wanted two vise mounts on the back bumper, so the bumper itself is a little different,” Bostic says. “I went with a 14,000-pound IMT crane that will reach out to 32 feet. I’ve lifted, swung and put on a lowboy trailer a 40-yard coal blade off a D8N Cat that weighed 11,800 pounds, and never re-positioned the truck. That crane is a beast.”
IMT crane swings dozer blade off a D8N Cat
Bostic gets double-duty, and increased safety, from his crane with a “man basket” from IMT.
“It mounts on the (crane’s) horsehead,” he says. “It gives you a man-lift with nearly 40-feet of reach. When you’re doing knuckle lines on a big Liebherr material handler, it’s a lot safer to be working from a man-lift rather than climbing around on the equipment with the possibility of getting hurt.”
The man basket is stored in the bed of the service body, along with a gang box for chains and binders, with a full lube pack at the front of the bed. The bed is sheltered by a Truckhugger power tarp activated by a remote control on Bostic’s key fob.
The lube pack in the truck’s bed is tied to a full set of Reelcraft hose reels mounted in one of two custom-built storage boxes that sit atop the normal IMT side compartments. The custom boxes share space on top of the IMT body with a Miller Trailblazer 302 Air Pak welder/generator/rotary screw air compressor/12- and 24-volt charger/jump starter.
“The jump starter on that Air Pak will start a D9 with dead batteries, no problem,” says Bostic. “It doesn’t fool around.”
Beneath the custom-built storage boxes, American Eagle drawers maximize usable space in the IMT cabinets.
“I chose American Eagle drawers because when they open, there’s only one-eighth-inch
Space limits the room we have to detail the RAD-brand air-powered torque guns, 1-1/2-inch-drive pneumatic impact guns, a dry-ice maker for shrinking metal, an exothermic cutting torch, and other special tools Bostic uses when working on tug boats and loading facilities on the Ohio River, or in neighboring pit mines.
One accessory on his truck he neglected to mention was a K3LA Airchime locomotive air horn, rated at 156 decibels and advertised as audible for five miles on a calm day. But we heard about it from folks in his neighborhood. His air horn, like his truck and everything on it, is impressive.
— Dan Anderson
Dan Anderson is a part-time freelance writer and full-time heavy equipment mechanic with more than 20 years of experience working out of service trucks. He is based in Bouton, Iowa.