Fifty-seven year-old Larry Bryant of Troutville, Va., has turned wrenches for 40 years, worked for Excel Truck Group (formerly Virginia Truck Center) for the last 38 years and, “the last job I had working on gasoline engines was in 1977.”
He specializes in roadside repairs to Mack and Freightliner trucks but can fix just about any brand of truck or trailer that’s stranded alongside a highway. He works from a 2014 Western Star chassis outfitted with a 500-horsepower Detroit Diesel DD16 engine. A custom-designed Adkins service body equipped with a 10,000-pound capacity Auto Crane stretches the bumper-to-bumper length to 40 feet. A tidy 54-inch Western Star low-roof sleeper is tucked between the cab and service body.
“I try not to use it very much, but when I’m 150 or 200 miles from home and the sun is starting to come up as I’m putting away my wrenches, it’s a good place to lie down and rest before I head for home,” Bryant says.
Rather than use a PTO-powered hydraulic system, Bryant opted for a Miller EnPak slide-in power system that rides in the front of his truck’s bed. The EnPak incorporates a rotary screw air compressor, hydraulic pump and generator in one unit, all powered by a three-cylinder Kubota diesel engine.
“My truck engine burns around a gallon of fuel per hour when it’s idling,” he says. “The Kubota burns 3/10 of a gallon per hour. The EnPak runs the hydraulics for the crane, and I’ve got things wired and plumbed so I can run my A/C tools and air tools out the back of the truck.”
Ninety percent of Bryant’s work is roadside repairs, so he outfitted his truck for the challenges of working within a few feet of traffic rushing past at 70 miles an hour. Three low-profile LED light bars top a custom rack behind the sleeper. Strobe lights are mounted on all four corners. Additional emergency lights have been considered, but were discouraged.
“I told one officer I was thinking about mounting a rack of blue lights on the truck because that seems to be the only lights (traffic) will move over for,” says Bryant in his Virginia drawl. “He said I probably shouldn’t do that.”
Bryant’s truck’s massive service body with multiple side cabinets and optional toolboxes atop the cabinets gives him storage room that helps him work efficiently.
“When I want a 9/16-inch wrench I want to reach in and grab a 9/16-inch wrench, not dig through dozens of wrenches piled in a drawer,” he says. “When I want a specific air valve or alternator, I don’t want to have to pull out a dozen other boxes before I get to the one I want. I don’t like messing around. Road repairs have really changed, now that they’ve got better equipment to haul big trucks to the shop. We used to install rods and mains and pistons on the side of the road, but nowadays it’s more about fixing electronic stuff—low water sensors, alternators, bad wiring connectors—things like that.”
Bryant says computer-related repairs are an increasing segment of his workload.
“I’ve got four laptops in my truck, loaded with everything from the old Mack engine manuals to new Cat and Cummins diagnostics, and can do credit cards and billing from the road if I have to,” he says. “More and more, all I have to do is load new software or do a forced re-gen (a process that forces the engine’s Tier IV exhaust system to self-clean itself) or something like that to get a truck back on the road. I have to admit, sometimes I fix something and think, “Now, that’s pretty cool — I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty.”
Unlike many road warriors employed by dealerships, Bryant owns his own service truck and all the tools onboard.
“It’s a big expense, owning my own truck, but I stay busy, it does a lot of work, and I make a decent living,” he says. “One of the nice things is that I don’t have to work in a shop very much. That’s fine by me. I’m not worth a darn in the shop. I guess I’m too independent. I enjoy being on my own and figuring things out. The big truck just makes it easier.”
Scott Witt, senior vice president with Excel Truck Group, says the unique service truck matches the unique tech who works from it.
“Larry will work in snow, rain, heat, or cold, go on any service call at any time of day or night, to get customers up and running again,” Witt says. “He and that truck are truly one of a kind. They are huge, huge assets to Excel Truck Group.”
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.