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There’s a photo at the bottom of how this truck looked before the restoration in 2012. This is Evel Knievel and crew’s “Big Red” cabover and trailer. It’s just been restored over the past couple of years.
It’s a 1974 Mack cabover haul rig and trailer (some of you might remember he also had a Kenworth before this Mack. The Mack was build custom for Kneivel’s office/dressing room with a matching trailer). The restoration is now complete (by Robb Mariani’s TV show American Trucker), and this month it got some final paint.
The owner is Lathan McKay. McKay owns a lot of Knievel memorabilia, including some Harleys.
This custom sleeper and trailer had a lot of work since it was the rusted out (the ceiling actually had cloud like spaces rusted through it), full of dirt, falling apart vehicle it got to.
It has an auto transmission, but that did not work in 2012. The cab is was a Western series F model FS700. The old cab was “toast” — so rusty it was beyond repair.
They got a new F model (now it’s a 295-inch FS786LST.) and took as many components as possible from the old cab.
They kept it “as original as they could,” according to rebuilder Brad Wike of BPW Transport / Brad’s Classic Trucks.
He said the trailer was probably a 1966 model. They had to replace the doors but they planned for the old doors to go to a museum. They took out all the old rotted flooring, sandblasted underneith, rubber coated it, fixed some cross-members.
