Page 16 - Demo

NEWS
For Pete’s sake – a free truck!
A PETERBILT DEVOTEE WHO HAS SIX OF THE CLASSIC
North American trucks and his own personal Pete museum, has been judged the make’s No. 1 SuperFan.
Californian trucker Rick McClerkin’s reward? He’s been given the Peterbilt Model 567 Heritage tractor unit that was the one-millionth truck built by the PACCAR brand.
e 61-year-old McClerkin was judged the winner of the Peterbilt SuperFan contest to mark the make’s production milestone – beating 1500 other entrants to the title....and the truck.
He reckons he took his rst ride in a Peterbilt at the age of ve – and has been smitten with the make ever since.
e owner-operator has two Petes in his trucking business, four other collector trucks....plus seven more built by Fageol Motors, the company Peterbilt acquired in 1938. His museum dedicated to the brand includes over 50,000 drawings, diagrams and brochures of the trucks – which he
shares with other enthusiasts and restorers.
McClerkin reckons: “I’ve been empowered by that red oval all my life.” He even dreamt-up and hosted a 75th birthday party and truck show for
the make in 2014 – attended by 350 Peterbilts and 5000 visitors.
Needless to say the rst truck he drove, at the age of 17, was a Peterbilt,
which he drove o road, hauling gravel for logging roads.
e Model 567 Heritage “SuperFan” tractor has an all-PACCAR drivetrain including an MX-13 engine, an AMT and a 40,000 lb rear axle. It has custom chrome nishes and came with free oil changes up to 1.6
million kilometres.
“I’m going to keep it shining,” McClerkin promises.
Peterbilt GM Kyle Quinn says that the truckmaker was “blown away by
the response and each of the amazing stories that each of you shared with us. For many of you, Peterbilt is truly a way of life.”
McClerkin says he’s now thinking of starting a Peterbilt club. T&D Nikola refunds deposits
ELECTRIC HEAVY-DUTY TRUCK DEVELOPER NIKOLA
Motor has announced that it’s refunding 9000 deposits so far paid for its highway tractor units.
Nikola CEO and founder Trevor Milton says that the move is in response to “a lot of people” asking if Nikola was using the deposit money to fund its operations.
e company announced its move on its Facebook page, with the message: “Great news! All reservations will be refunded 100% and you won’t lose your place in line. We don’t use your money to operate our business. We want everyone to know we have never used a dollar of deposit money to operate the company on – like other companies do.”
e last bit is clearly a shot at Tesla, which is taking $US20,000 reservations for its electric tractor unit.
Nikola says that orders from here on require no deposits and those already paid – an estimated $US13.5million worth – will be refunded within two months, says Nikola: “How awesome is that!!!!!! Over 8 billion in pre-orders, so who needs deposits.”
e Nikola One and Two tractor units will reportedly use electric motors powered by 320 kWh battery packs.....which in turn will be replenished via a hydrogen fuel cell system, which Bosch is designing.
When the etruck was launched two years ago Nikola said it had 7000 orders (which until now required a $US1500 deposit), for $US2.3billion worth of trucks. e announcement of the refunds now claims that it has $US8bn worth of trucks ordered.
Nikola says it’s building a $US1bn R&D centre in Arizona and will be in production with its etrucks in 2021. T&D
e sleeper cab Nikola One
14 | Truck & Driver
e one-millionth Peterbilt has been given away