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 OverDriveOnline, 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 McGillisBy James McGillis at 04:31 PM | Technology | Comments (0) | Link
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