Hard Work Pays Off!   Who said there is no work in this great country? Who thinks you can’t get ahead in the trucking industry today?  Eight months ago we had the opportunity to meet two young brothers who own a small trucking and construction business.  These 2 brothers happen to be 25 and 22 years old and are now the proud owners of a Pittsburgh Power built 389 Peterbilt Glider Kit.  Their names are Brad and Josh Deeter of Deeter Farms and Construction in Cooperstown Pa. 40 miles north of I-80 on Rt. 8 in northern Pennsylvania.   These two boys were raised on the family farm of 900 acres growing soybeans and corn.  Their grandfather, Paul Deeter and their father Craig not only worked the farm they decided to drill oil wells in the late 1970’s and purchased some trucks and lowboy trailers to haul their own equipment. 

 Back then the oil and gas industry was doing ok in the Franklin and Oil City Pa. and the Deeters would do construction for the industry.  Once the oil industry left that part of Pa. the father decided to close down the trucking and construction business and just work the farm.  So bankruptcy was close, and Paul Deeter called Brad who was a junior at Penn State University studying mechanical engineering and said if you want the business come and get it.  This was 2009 and Brad decided he wanted the trucking and construction business and still wanted to finish his degree at Penn State.  Now he has a full time job trying to resurrect a defunct business along with studying to become a mechanical engineer.  His commute to the business was 150 miles each way and he did it; he finished college, married a beautiful woman by the name of Allison, while rebuilding the trucking and construction business and avoided bankruptcy with a hard intelligent work ethic.

 When Josh was a junior in high school he joined the company working in the evenings, weekends, and summers building ponds for frack water for the oil and gas industry in the Washington, Pa. area.  They moved their office to Hickory, Pa.  and since 2009 have accumulated 28 trucks, bull dozers, excavators, skid steers and 58 employees.  Of the 28 trucks 17 are 2008 and newer and are equipped with the DPF filters and EGR.  Two or three of the trucks are in the shop for warranty repairs all the time and 5 more are running with the check engine light on waiting to get into the truck dealership.  Some of their earth moving equipment also have the Tier 4 emissions and drives them crazy waiting for the re-gen to complete so they can go back to moving dirt.

  Fed up with all of the emission equipment on their trucks and in need of a new heavy haul truck they contacted Pittsburgh Power Inc. to build them a new 389 Peterbilt glider kit. This truck is equipped with an ISX 600 Cummins, Pittsburgh Power Computer, Fass Fuel System, Mercury filled engine balancer, 46,000 rears, 3:70 gear ratio, 18 speed transmission, 8” stacks with quiet spools in the stacks.  Great care was taken by the mechanics and service manager of Pittsburgh Power to make the engine installation as clean as possible.  We wanted to keep all of the wires and hoses hidden as much as possible for the clean look and I think we obtained our goal.

  This truck was NOT financed by a bank or loan institution, the Deeter Boys paid cash for this truck!  Like all growing companies they are in need of a few good local truck drivers and they are an all Kenworth fleet except for one new Pete.  If you are interested in working in the Washington, Pa. area and being home every night, even though the days are long hours, please e-mail Allison.deeterfarms@gmail.com.

  Caterpillar exhaust manifold gaskets - if you are changing the exhaust manifold gaskets on a C-15 Caterpillar and the gaskets have the sleeve that protrudes into the exhaust port please do NOT use those gaskets.  The sleeve breaks off and wipes out the turbine wheel and the turbo is junk and there is NO warranty on those gaskets.  Always install the Cat gasket without the sleeve.

 It has been brought to our attention that the Kenworth T-660 and the T-800 are now available as Glider Kits.  That is great news; 2 years ago. I had several long conversations with the Vice President of Kenworth and explained to him the demand for glider kits.  I’m glad they saw the light!

  Please don’t think that building a glider kit is more economical than buying a new truck, it’s not, in-fact it’s more expensive, however you do not have the problems associated with the new trucks so you truck trouble free with more power and no break downs.

 ISX-EGR, DD5-EGR Engines, if you are having problems with these engine we can repair them and you problems are solved, however we need the truck at our shop in Saxonburg, Pa.  There are too many small items that must be addressed so doing this type of work at your home is nearly impossible.

 Enthusiasm drives owner-operators and small business, the problem is government employees have no enthusiasm and they control us.