OOIDA Life Member Colin Stuart of Harvard, IL, was hauling on the Alleghany Route in New York last summer when he was flagged for a DOT inspection. When Colin opened the side box and the inspector saw a propane bottle, he said "That's hazmat! You can't have that!" Colin told him that if he couldn't have a propane bottle, then the DOT better start pulling over every RV.
"What do you have that for?" the inspector asked. Colin opened the door to his 120-inch sleeper berth and showed the inspector his working fireplace that's fueled by the propane. Colin told the Smokey, "It's my answer to your no-idling laws." The inspector laughed and said, "Get the heck out of here."
I met Colin here at the Mid-America Trucking Show right after he won four first-place awards and one second-place award for his blue and white 1984 Peterbilt 359 working show truck. He did all the work himself -- rebuilding it from the frame rail up. Over a five-year period he built the oak cabinets for the sleeper, put in the Corian countertop, installed the fireplace, added chrome and lights and hand-painted the white horses that are running through the surf on the sides of the sleeper.
It's a working truck, and Colin uses the fireplace to stay warm on cold nights. He says you have to put it on its lowest setting or it will blast you right out of the sleeper. The truck's a beauty. It's featured on the cover of one of Leland Martin's CDs. I don't know which of the truck's features impressed the judges the most. But I suspect that, like the trooper in New York, the judges had to love that working fireplace.
Very, very cool!
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