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Here’s a big black machine belongs to a member of the Plains, Trains page, Ken Gold. He sent us a bit of info on his semi, as well as some photos of it and its interior, and some more photos of a couple of Ken’s other trucks.
Some specs for this truck:
Name: “BBMF”
2008 Pete 389
550 Cat
18 SpeeD
170 inch ITC Sleeper
“The interior is charcoal & burgundy in color with a queen size bed, marble floors and granite counter tops as well as a 2000 watt audio & video system.
“BBMF averages approx 120,000 annually hauling Exotic & Classic automobiles around the 48 with a single driver who takes a lot of pride in his ride.
“My philosophy has always been, give a good driver a truck he we be proud of and he will treat is as his own.”
Ken also sent us some pics of his big white counterpart to this giant sleeper bearing semi.
Classic Custom Sleepers
These big sleeper units on cabovers (they used them on conventionals, too, of course) started showing up increasingly in the late 70s and early 80s when Double Eagle Sleepers started making them.
They came in sizes between 30″ sleepers and 84″ “mansion” sleepers. And they came skinny and low-ceiled to big stand-up walk-ins.
The company came out of Shipshewana, Indiana, they built sleepers that aimed for quality — standards that exceeded government regulations for them.
The custom sleepers were made by John Bontrager, Ervin Bontrager, Marvin Bontrager and Ray Miller.
They also offered “standard” sleeper conversions, but that was often just a starting point for the custom sleepers they were asked to build.
They have an aluminum framing structure, heli-arc welded joints, aluminum exterior panels, and fluted rear walls.
The sleeper units all have four or more door to the compartment (2 sleeper doors and 2 for luggage compartment). Longer ones had more, because they had bathrooms and so forth.
They also worked on quality luxury interior finishings, as can be seen in the example photos.
Here are some old pictures from Overdrive Magazine. Visit Overdrive Magazine online (click here).
Kingsley Coach. How About THIS for Your RV?
To see our original write up on this Kingsley coach original, click here. This is a follow up write up, pretty much entirely because we were fortunate on this truck: Jesse L. James filled us in a bit on the history and specifications. Thanks Jesse and everyone else on the Plaines, Trains page who keeps sending us details on all these great vehicles. We’ll keep updating the write ups so you can find out about them. Here’s Jesse:
“Lee Ann Rimes is actually the first to have these custom made for her tour. The rest is history,” Jesse told us. He was good enough to elaborate:
“LeAnn Rimes actually bought the RV from Ralph Dickenson who became Kingsley Coach. It’s powered by a 410 Cummins with a 6 speed Allison transmission. It’s 45 feet long, and they actually ordered three on the initial order. She had them done up beautiful. It’s basically a Peterbilt 379 with a big RV sleeper. Everybody called them Peterbus’s … Price tag then about $300K+.
“The only reason I know this is the wife and I worked in the industry for Stage Call Transportation at the time and had the opportunity to check them out while on tour.”
Jesse was also able the question we had … and it was also asked by people on the Plains, Trains page … about the engine. Is it under the hood or in the back in the engine compartment?:
“It’s under the hood, same as any Pete, only the buses have the engine underneath like the Prevost units. The truck combos do have generators however under or on the sides they use for electricity.”
Photos are from a “Rimes edition”
Thanks, Jesse!
