COVER FEATURE - JUNE 2008
LAYIN' LOW
JAMES DAVIS & HIS DUMPED PETE KEEP A LOW PROFILE
By Daniel J. Linss - Editor
Layin’ low is more than just a lifestyle for James Davis of Medford, Oregon – it’s also the way his truck rolls down the road. At only 30 years old, this young owner operator has already seen a lot, done a lot, had a lot of cool trucks, and darn near killed himself in a bad truck wreck. When he set out to build his latest rig, the hot rod Peterbilt pictured here, he wanted it to be the lowest working truck around. Rolling with less than four inches of air under the bumper, we’d say he accomplished that feat. But he not only made it low, he made it downright sweet from top to bottom and front to back.
Growing up in Corvallis, Oregon, James was exposed to trucking from the very beginning. His dad, “Big Ed” Davis, was a popular and well-liked owner operator in the Pacific Northwest who taught his son how to work hard, work smart, put pride in everything he does and treat people right. Ed is 6’6” tall (hence the nickname “Big Ed”) but he likes to call himself 5’18” tall – it makes the “little people” feel more comfortable. Ed always had nice equipment and took good care of his trucks, and the fruit does not fall far from the tree – James is the same way. Ed has a picture of James taken when he was one year old, outside, with hose in hand, washing a truck.
James always loved to go on trips with his dad in the truck. His jobs were to wave at the other truckers and flash the clearance lights when necessary. Ed hauled building materials up and down the west coast, but when James started getting more involved in sports in high school, he wanted to be home more so he could attend the games, so he quit driving and took a dispatch job at a local company in Albany, Oregon called Tri-West. James started working in their yard when he was 14 years old, doing all sorts of odd jobs. At 15 he moved his first truck in the yard and vividly remembers the experience because he almost ran into a closed shop door when he forgot to push in the clutch to stop. After that he practiced a lot and got really good. At 18 he got his Learner’s Permit and shortly thereafter he got his license and started running.
In the beginning, James had a plan – buy a truck, get the kinks out of it, put a driver in it, and then use the money he made from it to go to college. In 1997 he bought his first truck – a 1978 A-Model Kenworth long hood with a V8 Cat. Well, those old V8’s were pretty temperamental, and he never really could “get the kinks out of it” like he wanted, so he never made it to college. Instead, he signed up for the school of hard knocks and hit the highway. But things were not that bad – he was driving a cool truck, making great money and doing what he truly loved. His next truck was a 1975 Pete 359 long hood with a B-Model Cat and a flat dash. This truck, like the first, was painted yellow with white stripes. After driving the Pete for a year, he bought his next truck – a 1968 KW with a standard hood and painted it yellow and white as well. James always loved the old iron. Things were going great – he was running all over California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington, hauling anything he could find in his curtain van trailer.
Things took a turn for the worse in 2004 when James had a terrible crash that sidelined him for five months. Traveling on Highway 89 just outside of Redding, California in the Lake Shasta area, James rolled his loaded truck and trailer completely upside-down. Nobody really knows exactly what happened because James barely remembers getting in the truck that day – he sustained a bad head injury, among others, and blacked out. Some witnesses said that there were rocks in the road that he swerved to avoid, but no one really knows for sure. James had to be air-lifted to Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding where he spent five days. He broke his right scapula (shoulder bone), his left ankle, had bruised lungs, broken ribs and a large laceration on his head. And to make matters worse, his insurance company filed for bankruptcy before his case could be completely settled – they paid for the trailer and the load, but James had to bite the bullet on all of his medical bills and the truck. During his recovery, James kept busy tinkering with his dad’s trucks. “Big Ed” had recently left Tri-West and was driving again – in fact, he was building a small fleet that now had ten trucks.
Needing a truck, James pulled out a 1988 Peterbilt cabover that had been sitting in their yard for awhile and got her running again. That old cabover ended up serving him very well for many years. In 2005 he had the opportunity to buy the 1993 Peterbilt 379 seen on these pages for a low price, so he went for it. The truck was pretty beat up – it had been running hard for many years and was painted green with a 63-inch standup sleeper. James had a vision to build a hot rod Pete that was lower than anything he had ever seen, yet still workable. He immediately went to work on the project and continued to drive the cabover throughout the entire two-year ordeal. When it was all said and done, the truck made its maiden voyage to the truck show in Reno (2007) where it won several awards.
The truck, as mentioned before, is a 1993 Pete 379 Ext. Hood with a turned-up 3406C 425 Cat, a 13-speed tranny, 268-inch wheelbase and 3.70 rears (which are going to be switched out with 3.42’s in the very near future). James is a stickler for perfection – he wanted everything to line up and work together, so he worked very hard to accomplish that look. To get it low, he installed a car hauler front axle and did some heavy modifications to the rear suspension and air bags. He removed the standup sleeper and replaced it with an “old school” 36-inch flattop and then “suicided” the large side doors on the sleeper and added a rear window. James also shaved all the door handles and vents and then reskinned the cab doors. Now, his vision was really beginning to come together.
Trevor Luebbert of Kaufman’s Sheet Metal in Tangent, Oregon helped James create custom step boxes with rounded edges, 9-inch cab and sleeper extensions, blank air cleaner panels, deck plates and more. The stock headlights were replaced with 359 double-rounds, which were mounted as low as possible on stock Pete 359 brackets. To clean up the front even more, fiberglass fenders were installed, the fender brackets were removed and the grille surround was extended down to fill in a gap. The cool paint was the final touch. Austen’s Body Shop in Canby, Oregon sprayed the two-color scheme orange on the bottom and black on the top, and then a thin silver leaf accent stripe was added between the two. James then painted most of the exterior features either orange or black.
While the truck was being built, James went ahead and redid his 2000 Wilson curtain van as well. James had the frame rails and winches painted orange, painted the nose cone and rear doors black, powder coated all of the rear door hardware and polished out the wheels and most of the other exposed aluminum pieces.
James wanted to thank everyone who helped him finish this project – especially a few of his dad’s drivers including Jeremy, Jason, Ron, Mark and Tom. These guys pitched in at the end and worked many long days and nights to ensure that the truck was completed in time for the Reno show. James also wanted to thank his good friend Bob Hulbert for his help with the entire project, as well as his mom (Rayven) and dad for all their help and support over the years – he couldn’t have done any of this without them. These two lovebirds have been married for 36 years and have provided James with a solid family foundation.
Of course, the truck is not totally finished (are they ever), as James still needs to do some more work inside. Currently, the dash is painted orange and the door panels and headliner have embossed flames in black leather, but James also wants to add a few monitor screens, a DVD player and a game console so that his 7-year-old daughter can have more fun when she goes on trips with him. Alexis (A.K.A. Lexi) digs her dad’s cool truck and always keeps a picture of it in her school backpack. Living nearby with her mother, James spends all of his extra time with Lexi and loves to take her on trips in the truck.
Last March James had the opportunity to take a load back east and then go to the truck show in Louisville, Kentucky. He and “Big Ed” hit the highway together and then delivered their load in Bristol, Indiana, before heading south to the show. Neither of them had ever trucked back east, so it was an eye-opening experience that they won’t soon forget (they even got to spend five hours at the famed Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa). What a great way for a father and son to hang out and spend time together. And while at the show, they made tons of new friends and had a terrific time – James even bagged a 3rd Place trophy in his class.
Ed told us that James is rather particular about most things, but then sometimes drops the ball on others – he called James the “king of C-clamps and vice-grips” because he often uses those handy items to “fix” problems. He’s even been known to use bubble gum to repair air leaks. I guess this “perfectionist” is not so perfect after all. But his truck sure is!
We had a great time with James and his friends in Oregon (Bryan, Jesse, Jeff and Zach, to name a few), and can’t wait to hang out with all of them at more of the truck shows. And if you happen to see James layin’ low out there, don’t let his backwards hat, dark sunglasses and earrings scare you – he is very approachable and loves to talk truck with anyone. And now that his truck has been on our cover, it might be hard for him, personally, to lay low, but his truck won’t have any problem with that.