An oldie but goodie

Check out the service truck built and rebuilt to be handy and to get jobs done right the first time.

by

Field technician Levi Morris is the same age as his service truck.The 33-year-old Morris works from a 1991 International S Series powered by a Cummins L10. The chassis carries a 1970s-vintage 19-foot-long Servis brand service body originally designed to auger and set poles for a power company.

He’s a multi-skilled tech who grew up around a father and grandfather who were both mechanics and learned his trade the old-fashioned way by doing.

“I never enjoyed sitting in a classroom,” he said. “I’m more of a hands-on guy.“I started as a kid working for my grandfather, sweeping floors and cleaning toilets in his shop.

I’d do whatever they told me to do and ask lots of questions. I’ve wanted to be a mechanic for as long as I can remember.

”Morris now works for Raw Country Diesel in Centralia, Washington State, in a unique relationship that gives him near-autonomy. 

“I have a boss, but I pretty much man- age myself,” he explained without even the slightest trace of bravado. “I work for the company and have benefits, but I have my own customer base and get to work my own schedule. If I’m working on a non-critical job, the boss may pull me off and send me to go rescue somebody stranded on the side of the freeway, but otherwise, I’m pretty much on my own.

”Morris does engine and transmission repairs, but emergency roadside service has become his area of expertise.

He specializes in deciphering problems with diesel exhaust after-treatment systems. To that end, he stocks his oversize truck with parts and pieces commonly used in road-side repairs.

According to Morris, the service body has been customized to meet changing needs over the years.

“It was originally on a single-axle truck and was extended to fit on this tandem axle truck,” noted Morris.

“The crane was originally meant to bore holes for utility poles with an auger, but the auger was replaced with a winch that’s spooled at the base of the crane. It’s mounted on the right rear corner of the box, but it’s so long that in transport posi- tion, it lays across the bed and rests behind the cab on the driver’s side. It’s long, and it’s got power. It will reach out to 42 feet, and it has lifted 37,000 (documented) pounds.”

The compartment immediately behind the truck’s cab runs the full width of the body and houses his oxygen and acetylene bottles as well as a venerable Miller 55D (diesel) welder-generator and a Quincy air compressor driven directly off the Miller welder’s crankshaft.

“I use a lot less fuel running the little engine on the welder to drive the aircompressor than if I had to run the truck’s engine,” commented Morris. “The welder’s engine is fed off the truck’s fuel tank, so it can run all day if it needs to. I also carry a Lincoln LN25 suitcase welder and a bottle of C25 gas (25 percent CO2, 75 percent argon) for MIG welding.

”If there’s one complaint, the utility-style service body’s compartments don’t have a lot of depth—they’re only 17 inches from door to back wall—which means standard service body drawer sets won’t fit. To resolve this, he stacked two Snap-on road boxes in the compartment ahead of the left rear wheels.

Sets of Milwaukee Tool’s PACKOUT boxes fill other compartments. Compartments closest to the back hold frequently used tools and supplies.“I load the tools I use most often toward the rear,” he explained. “I work off the back of the truck a lot because walking 19 feet to the front wastes time.

”For that reason, the welder’s leads are routed through the service body and stored on hooks in the compartment at the base of the crane, making them easily accessible at the rear of the truck.Right-side compartments are largely filled with A/C compressors, alternators, and DEF/DPF system components and other quick-fix parts that give him one- trip repair capabilities.

“I like pulling up to somebody who’s stranded on the side of the road and getting them moving all in one trip,” he said. “I try to have the parts to fix a lot of the common problems, but I’ll use bubble gum and duct tape if I have to, just to get them moving. That’s the fun part for me figuring things out on the fly.”

Morris is happy with his vintage service truck, but he would change one aspect if he could—adding a Kenworth cab to it.

“The International cab I have now is so short from front to rear that there’s not even room on the dash for a coffee cup without it hitting the front window, but it’s so wide that you almost need a roadmap to travel across and roll down the passenger window. Other than that, I’m very happy with it. I’m more interested in having what The compartment immediately behind I need to fix things than having a shiny Function trumps fancy. Drawer sets house hydraulic The form the truck’s cab runs the full width of the new truck.”