Boorman Farms of Quincy, Wash., uses four service trucks to keep many and massive pieces of equipment running on their potato farm. The flagship of the Boorman service fleet is a custom-built 1990 Peterbilt 379 extended hood powered by a 450-horsepower Caterpillar 5EK engine. Eye- catching seven-inch diameter chrome exhaust stacks tower over the rig.
“The stacks will fit through a 14-foot door, but just barely,” says Nic Boorman, who operates Boorman Farms with his father and brother. “Some of the guys nicknamed the truck, ‘Pipes’ because of those stacks.”
Over the years, Nic’s father, Carl, has owned a number of service trucks, and currently works from a Ford F-550 outfitted with a 12-foot-long Brutus aluminum service body. Nic decided, rather than upgrade his own service truck as their farms’ needs grow, he would build one service truck to last a lifetime.
“I may add stuff to this truck, I may modify it, but I plan to die with this truck,” Nic laughs. “I’m tired of having to replace service trucks because the chassis or engine wears out. With this Pete we can do all our own work and make it last a long time.”
Nic’s brother Brandon researched service bodies when they were outfitting their father’s truck, and discovered Brutus Truck Bodies in Penticton, B.C. The Boormans were so satisfied with the way the Brutus body performed on Carl’s F-550 that when it came time to outfit the bigger Peterbilt, they journeyed to Canada, sat down with Brutus’ engineers, and started sketching ideas.
“We liked the light weight of the aluminum body, along with how strong their design is,” says Brandon. “Plus, they were willing to help us custom design features that we wanted into the truck.”
A 12,000-pound-capacity Cobra hydraulic crane mounts to the left rear corner of the 14-foot aluminum service body on the Peterbilt’s chassis, providing 27 feet of reach. While many service trucks in the United States have cranes mounted on the right rear corner of the body, many Canadian trucks mount their cranes on the left rear corner.
“I liked that idea,” Nick says. “I work off the left side of the truck, have all my frequently used tools on that side, so it makes sense for me to have the crane and crane controls on that side, too.”
Rather than use a PTO to power the crane’s hydraulics, the Boormans chose to power all hydraulic functions, as well as a generator, air compressor and welder, via a VMAC Multifunction Power System mounted on a slide-out drawer in the truck’s front, passenger- side compartment.
“We wanted to keep hours off the truck,” says Brandon “We didn’t want it sitting and idling to run the PTO while we worked on equipment. The VMAC has worked so well that we now have VMACs in three of our other service trucks.”
Though Nic bought and outfitted his big Peterbilt service truck to last a lifetime, he admits the truck will evolve as their farming operation changes.
“I originally went for a ‘clean’ look to the truck, and didn’t want a lot of extra lights mounted all over it,” he says. “I put a Whelen (emergency) light bar on it for when we move oversize equipment. It’s programmable, and I made one of the settings so the bar puts out only white light in all directions. That works pretty good as an all-round floodlight, but I’m thinking I may install some more lights on the rear corners to brighten up some dark spots.”
He also anticipates adding horsepower when it’s time to rebuild the engine.
“We pull a small ’dozer on a three-axle trailer with it sometimes,” he says. “We’re thinking about using Caterpillar marine pieces and parts to a get a lot more power when we do a rebuild. I’m not sure you can ever have too much power.”
Nic isn’t the only one contemplating changes to his service truck. Father Carl, after seeing how well the big Peterbilt chassis and Brutus service box have performed, is mentally engineering a replacement for his F-550.
“I’m thinking about a tandem axle Peterbilt chassis, with an 18-foot Brutus aluminum service body,” says Carl. “Maybe with two cranes, one on each rear corner of the bed.”
There’s apparently a little bit of competition among service trucks in the Boorman family …