Sound Off Signal's Pinnacle Series Lightbars

Sound Off Signal's Pinnacle Series lightbars feature innovative optics design,“Fusion Technology”, the first ever optics designed much like a lighthouse to boost the light farther & wider for a bright, safe warning signal. Features super bright Gen3 LEDs. Super powerful Gen3 LED Takedown & Alley lights standard. Available with Low Profile Fixed Mount Brackets or Adjustable Mount Brackets in 4 lengths.The Pinnacle Lightbar is the cutting edge lightbar for Law Enforcement, Security, Fire, Tow/Municipal vehicle fleets or volunteer vehicles. Lightbar has a 5 Year No Hassle Warranty.

Get all the specs and more photos at www.soundoffsignal.com.

UltraLITE Exterior Warning Bars from Sound Off Signal

Introducing the new UltraLITE Exterior Warning Bars from Sound Off Signal. They have weatherproofed their popular UltraLITE Interior bar for outdoor use with a potted controller and Weatherproof Connectors. Each bar is made up of 4, 8 or 12 LED3 module lengths and ships with a pair of Universal Brackets, mounting screws and an 11.5' foot cable for installation. UltraLITE Exterior Warning Bars carry a 5 Year No Hassle Warranty and are certified for SAE J595 and compliant with California Title 13 requirements. For more information: UltraLITE.

The Pickup Bed Hoist Can Be Very Useful

Now it's a pickup. . . now it's a dump truck! Well, a very light duty dump truck to be sure, yet it is a very handy item. For the handyman or the farm or ranch or even light landscaping, the pickup hoist can be a very useful solution. The way these are mounted, no one knows it dumps until you crank up the hoist.

The units pictured are outfitted with Venco Pickup Hoists from Venco/Venturo, who builds a wide variety of hoists as well being a major crane manufacturer. This hoist has a 45 degree dump angle, so it is very effective at getting the last little bit of product out of the bed. These are electric hoists that operate off the truck battery.

I love finding different solutions for buyers. This is a great solution for a wide variety of applications.

New Glass/Service Body Combination from Harbor

Here's a sneak peak (thanks Kimberly) at a custom Glass/Service Body just produced by Harbor Truck Bodies in Brea, CA for Henry's Glass & Mirror in Bermuda Dunes, CA.

I've seen a number of glass bodies, but none quite like this. It's half service body and half glass body and I think it's brilliant! This particular unit is 8' long and mounts on a standard single rear wheel 3/4 or 1-ton pickup chassis. This gives it a lot of flexibility in choice of chassis (cab styles, interior trim, 2/4 wheel drive, etc.) as well as maneuverability because of its relatively small size. As you can see, it is no bigger than the pickup parked next to it, albeit, slightly taller.

So, now that they have built this one, Harbor can build more and maybe one for you! Call Harbor at 1-800-433-9452. If you need some glass work in SoCal, see Henry's Glass website at www.glazcon.com, or call them at 760-360-2800.

Custom Multi-Tasker for City of Fairfield CA

This is a very interesting truck. I have seen them all over the City of Fairfield and got to see one up close at a recent event. It's fun trying to guess what is what on some of these units.

The rear section is a dump body with short little gates all around. It is great for small jobs around the city. The box behind the cab has a good sized drawer to access cargo installed there and I think the design of this is just excellent--so do the workers driving them. That box is mounted on a stationary section of the bed. There is a generator mounted on top of the box and is quite helpful on certain jobs. Then, there is an underbed box on both sides.

The unit also has a tapered rack and though this is a flatbed, the typical headboard is not necessary because the box acts as a stop along with two posts. I also think that this is a super combination mounted on a super cab F350 dual rear wheel 60" CA chassis.

All in all this is one sweet truck that was designed and built by North Bay Truck Body in Cordelia CA. My hat's off to Bob Dias, president of North Bay. I've admired this truck for some time. Great job!

Airpax Dimensions 800 Watt Inverter

Let's take our commercial shell or service body or contractor body and add a little quiet power to run a few tools and get the job done. This is the Airpax Dimensions 800 watt pure sine wave inverter. It's a great addition to any work truck. Check it out at Versalift East.

Different Knapheide Stakebed - Very Nice!

While looking at some of my NTEA Work Truck Show photos, I remembered this Knapheide Flatbed. This is a great looking flatbed. What I think is interesting is the gates. It is rather like a Landscape body, yet they normally have solid gates. This one has expanded metal, or in this case "punched" metal for the top two thirds of the gate, and that is very different. I don't recall ever seeing one quite like this. In addition, it has the swing away rear gates, smooth steel floor and rear storage compartment. By the way, what in the heck do you put in that compartment? It is 12' long and only a few inches high. PVC pipe?

I like this body and would absolutely stock it. It would be a good one for Knapheide to promote on their website! See other great Knapheide bodies at www.knapheide.com.

Very Interesting Enclosed Body from Alum-Line

This is one of the more interesting service bodies I've ever seen. The shape is familiar, like a plumber style body or also called an enclosed service body, but the side doors and compartments are over the edge awesome! Look at the size of these doors and the horizontal one moves up and out of the way. Look at the space in these compartments.

If there is one thing about service bodies, it is that in a lot of cases you are limited in the size of items you can put in compartments. With these compartments, there is so much room and so many ways to use all that space, yet the compartments are only ever so slightly taller than a typical service body. Look how deep they are as well. Then consider the benefits of the fact that this is an aluminum body. This allows you to carry even more in those cavernous compartments.

The interior of this body can make great use of a bedslider to access equipment and supplies without climbing into the body. What a great combination that will make!

This great body is designed and built by Alum-Line, Inc. in Cresco, Iowa. Here's a link to the specs on this body: Specs. Call them at 800-446-1407.

Fond Memories of Helm's Bakery Trucks

I was surfing through the Internet and remembered Helm's Bakery from my early days in Southern California. I remember their trucks. My experience with them was in the late 50's and early 60's and the truck on top was very familiar to me. At that time they were using the Chevy Suburban panel and they had some very fine wood drawers in the back. When they would stop and open those drawers it was like opening a well made jewerly drawer. They were just beautiful and looked so high in quality and workmanship. And, the smell of the breads and other goodies was tremendous.

They would slowly cruise through our neighborhood and blow this wonderful sounding whistle and we would come out and buy whatever mom told us to get. They had exotic things as well--at least, they were exotic to us. It was a wonderful experience. Helm's was quite a distance away from us in San Gabriel Valley, so it was quite an operation to send trucks all over Southern California like that. Can you imagine doing something like that in today's world? They had some sweet trucks!

Here's a link to some history from Wikipedia: Helm's Bakery.

Scelzi Low Pro Service Body

Here is a shot of the Scelzi Low Pro Service Body. I think it is a great looking body and it is very rare to see a low pro version, and it looks perfect on this Ford F350. A lot of dealers don't pay any attention to the low pro model (where the top of the service body hits at about the bottom of the rear window vs the standard model about the middle of the rear window). I have found over the years that there is a very good market for the low pro for a couple of reasons. One, not everyone on the planet is over 6' tall, and two, it looks and feels a bit more like a pickup and less like a big ole work truck. This shot was taken at Wittmeier Ford in Chico CA. Gary Mitchell, the commercial truck manager has always kept low pros in stock and consequently sells them. Nice job Gary! Great truck body Scelzi!

Appreciate Someone! Aloud!

"Everyone wants to be appreciated,

so if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret."

- Mary Kay Ash, 1915-2001,

Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

This is so absolutely true and is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard. When I began appreciating people and telling them so, it changed me and as a by product, I became more appreciated. It is okay to tell people that you appreciate them, whether they are an employee, a boss or a friend. Gratitude is an amazing thing. Do it. You will never go back.

Nice 10' Contractor Body from North Bay Truck Body

Here's a great 10' Contractor Body with some twists. First it has tall boxes with vertical doors and shelving as the top box mounted next to the headboard on both sides. This is a great box that will carry a lot of stuff in varying sizes. Next, it is mounted to a square standard headboard instead of the typical tapered headboard and this is due to the tall box. Then, we have some bling going on with the shiny diamond treadplate fastened to the side and back of the top boxes.

Behind the boxes are the specially painted gates. The posts and wood gates are painted white to match the flatbed. Notice the nice receiver buildup and the wide enough bumper to step up on to grab something on the bed. Looks great too. The forklift loadable rack is body width so you can carry some wide items up there easily. Then see the underbed boxes mounted slightly under the bed to make full use of every one of those great tie-downs. The expanded metal headboard allows easy visibility of the bed area from the cab.

What's really great about this body is it has so much bed area to make use of. Because the upper bed boxes are taller, they take up less bed area, yet at the same time, hold more cargo. What a great combination!

All this quality from North Bay Truck Body in Cordelia, CA and mounted on a great Ford F350 crew cab with 60" CA. Nice job North Bay.

Vickers Saw Body And Crew On The Job

The Saw Body--part service body, part flatbed. It's designed to carry the very heavy concrete cutting machines and the large blades they use along with supplies and tools they need to get the job done. It comes with large compartments that are larger than on many service bodies, then there is the conventional liftgate on the rear to lift the heavy machine and get it on and off the truck and it also acts as a rear door to keep what's inside out of sight.

This unit appears to have been built by Western Truck Fab in Hayward, CA and is owned by Vickers Concrete Sawing Inc., The Service People, in business over 40 years. They have offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and Orange County.

Real work in action and using a great truck body. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Wisdom of the Ages

"You are what you repeatedly do.

Excellence is not an event--it is a habit."
- Aristotle (384-322 BC)

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)

I love quotations and see many of them each day. They are thought starters and catch me quickly and lend me a tidbit of wisdom to mull over throughout the day. It amazes me when I see quotes like these. We get to thinking that these ideas are fairly new, yet they are very, very old. The question I have is, knowing this fact, why is it that I learn these things clearly in my later life? Where were the teachers teaching this wisdom in the first 40 years?

It must be that we get focused on the now and what's happening and let go of the real wisdom in search of the quick fixes. Alas, I am now paying close attention and am open to the wisdom of the ages. Aristotle and Aurelius are reborn!

Chevy HHR Cargo Van. Great Looking Work Van!

The Chevy HHR Cargo is quite a nice looking cargo van and is an economical and attractive alternative to the larger cargo vans. This one owned by Tri-Eagle Beverage in Fairfield, CA was caught in a shopping center parking lot. I couldn't resist. Sweet!