Nice Road Trucker - 2011
This is NiceRoadTrucker.com.
Trucking Industry Legend Kevin Rutherford
Creates the Ultimate Freightliner Coronado RV Custom Rig
As we pulled in at the
Wine Country RV Resort in
Paso Robles, California, I noticed something
unusual. Squinting in disbelief, I spotted the longest
semi pulling a fifth-wheel RV rig I had ever seen.
Up front was a new
Freightliner Coronado on-highway traditional tractor
with a flat top sleeper. Pure white, with lots of chrome
and polished aluminum, it featured a full sleeper
compartment. With its twin 150-gallon diesel tanks, one
could drive this beauty coast-to-coast without a fuel
stop. On the dual rear axles, four
super-single tires took the place of the usual
eight. If this rig were pulling a standard van, with
super-singles all around, it would become a 10-wheeler,
rather than an 18-wheeler. Fewer tires on the ground
create lower rolling resistance, translating into higher
highway mileage. The engine of success for the
Freightliner Coronado has always been continuous
improvement. This custom tractor was no exception to
that rule.
To the rear, a modified hitch supported a
triple-axle,
Voltage Toy Hauler fifth wheel, manufactured by
Dutchmen. With the Voltage alone measuring over
forty-two feet, the full rig measured almost seventy
feet. That, of course, did not include the little
Smart Car, parked out front.
After looking at this astounding road
machine, I thought that the owner must be an on-highway
trucker on vacation or an eccentric individual, to say
the least. Freightliner
Diesel tractors mated to fifth wheel RVs are common
enough, but most such units look like a modified SUV.
This RV tractor was the long-wheelbase type, typically
seen pulling a fifty-three foot trailer along our
interstate highways. It was not until the next morning
that we met the owners of this unusual land yacht.
That morning, we sat enjoying a cup of
coffee in the warm California sun. Soon, we saw a woman
pull up in the Smart Car and unload groceries into the
coach. Before we knew it, we were in conversation with
Leesa Campbell and her husband,
Kevin Rutherford. An accountant, with experience in
trucking operations and truck building, Kevin also hosts
a daily "Letstruck"
Sirius satellite radio show. Even with multiple
careers to manage and many trade shows to attend, Kevin
and Leesa enjoy a full-time RV lifestyle.
Soon, Carrie and I were taking the grand
tour, starting with the Freightliner high style sleeper
cab and finishing in the palatial Voltage toy hauler.
With the floor set low in the coach, the ceilings
appeared to be ten feet high. There was no
claustrophobia there or forward in the master suite,
with its two separate entrances. In the salon, there
were generous living, dining and galley spaces.
In the stern, the spacious toy-hauler
garage also served as Kevin’s broadcast studio. After
stopping for the night, Kevin rolls the Smart Car down a
full body-width ramp. Then he closes the garage and uses
an innovative, piling-rig-sequence to lower his radio
studio into position. At show time, Leesa sits
amidships, screening the calls, while Kevin chats live
with truckers from all over the country.
Focusing as he does on “trucking as a
business”, Kevin Rutherford is a contributing author on
http://OverdriveOnline.com, where he has published
eighty-three articles to date. On his own
http:// LetsTruck.com website, Kevin features forums
where members share operating efficiency and mileage
tips. That information can make the difference between
profit and loss on the road. He also offers a free
mileage-minder program, called
My Gauges. Freightliner owner or not, members
logging in can input their fuel purchases and calculate
their mileage statistics. This leads to friendly
competition for top positions in the website’s
unofficial mileage championship. Although it is nowhere
as large as
Facebook, Kevin's 31,000-member LetsTruck.com social
media website helps owner-operators create efficiency
and profitability.
Although a casual observer might think
that Kevin Rutherford’s rig represents the ultimate RV
power trip, it does more than look good on the road.
Known for “walking the walk”, Kevin’s personal rig
averages close to ten miles per gallon. Few, if any
Class A diesel motor coaches attain that level of fuel
efficiency.
At a "truck of the future" factory in
Tennessee, Kevin Rutherford builds innovation into every
Freightliner custom
Signature Series Truck. Using Freightliner Coronado
tractors, he builds the big rig of the future for
on-highway use today. Before customer delivery, they
install custom tractor sleeper cabs, plus gauges and
level-monitoring for fuel and exhaust system
modifications, even chrome steps, if you choose. Many of
their custom rigs include advanced
oil filtering systems and super-single tires.
Utilizing those and other modifications, Kevin’s trucks
achieve both high mileage and low maintenance costs.
Even in today’s economy, demand for fuel-efficient, low
maintenance trucks is high. At the time of our meeting,
Kevin was working through a backlog of seventy new
Freightliners. Currently, his factory delivers two
finished units per workday, each for sale at over
$100,000.
Although it is both a showstopper and fun
to drive, Kevin’s personal rig is also a test bed for
innovations of all kinds. One example is its
Bose Ride
vibration-cancelling truck seats, manufactured by
the Bose Corporation. Using a technology similar to
their noise-cancelling headphones, the seats offer a
precise counter-force to road bumps, both large and
small. To demonstrate the vibration damping effect,
technicians drop a basketball on the seat platform. No
matter how hard they throw it down, the basketball
sticks without a bounce. Once installed in the cab of a
Kevin Rutherford tractor, the Bose ride and perceived
noise level are far superior to conventional air-ride
seats.
After our tour, it was almost time for
Leesa and Kevin’s three-hour Saturday afternoon
broadcast. After thanking Kevin and Leesa for their
hospitality, we departed for San Francisco. Looking
back, I laughed at my initial assumptions about Kevin's
big rig. Rather than an eccentric, resource-wasting RV
nut, our neighbor turned out to be a trucking industry
legend and visionary entrepreneur. Can you imagine what
might happen if in 2012 Kevin put his talents toward
creating the ultimate Freightliner off-road RV?
When towing, our pickup truck and travel
trailer rig averages about eight miles per gallon. Kevin
Rutherford and his Freightliner/Voltage fifth wheel rig
consistently average better than that. In both trucking
and the RV world, appearances can be deceiving.
Email
James McGillis
