Mobil Delvac Big Red
Big Red Part III: Body Beautiful
Our 2008 Mobil Delvac GMC sweepstakes/project truck’s service body gets ready for real work
By Bruce W. Smith
Field service is an essential part of a majority of those who work in the outdoor trades.
It could be anything from a landscaper laying an in-ground sprinkler system to a bridge builder doing some last-minute finishing work to a contractor replacing bucket teeth to a mechanic fixing an engine.
Whatever the job, having a pickup with a service body equipped to meet the need is a great benefit to any company. Having a service body that can be slid in and out of the bed as needed is doubly nice.
Although we don’t know exactly how our Mobil Delvac Big Red is going to be used after it’s given away next year, we do know some service body components will be appreciated by whomever wins the keys.
A strong air compressor is a must. So, too, is a decent onboard genset. A light-duty stick welder is handy as well.
Good auxiliary lights are always welcome for those night jobs, as are strobes to make people aware of the truck’s presence.
Having everything packaged together in the space of a pickup bed is a big bonus.
As we touted in the last issue, Vanair’s Air-N-Arc 150 combo handles the electrical, welding and air delivery systems in the Fleetwest removable service body that will grace Mobil Delvac’s 2008 GMC Dually’s bed.
Now we focus on pulling the rest of the service body setup together. To do the majority of that we have partnered with Buyers Products (buyersproducts.com), a company that offers contractors a one-stop shop for just about anything related to setting up work trucks.
BUYERS PRODUCTS
Truck Supply & Outfitters’ Daniel Parker installed Buyers’ Truck Star LED Mini Strobe heads on the front and rear upper edges of the service body, wiring them to a controller in the cab.
Vanair’s Air N Arc 150 combo is a central part of Big Red’s service body equipment package.
He also connected them to one of the switches in the Buyers pre-wired six-switch panel that he mounted under the Vanair master control in the driver’s side front cabinet.
Parker then mounted a pair of 5-inch round LED utility lights on top of the diamond plate that protects the top of each box at the back of the service body. He also cut in and installed the 6.5-inch oval LED backup lights to supplement the GMC’s.
Both sets of lights come on when the Mobil Delvac-sponsored Dually is put in reverse, or when turned on at the switch panel.
We also used Buyers’ 12-foot, wiring harness with nine pre-wired plugs to make it a cleaner, quicker light installation. The harness also makes it easy to add more two- or three-prong lights if needed in the future.
To see details on how these light installations were handled, go to the “Installs” tab on the Project Big Red homepage (propickupmag.com.)
GETTING REELED IN
Having air and electricity is great, but if you can’t get it to where you are working then it’s useless. And if you have coils of hose and extension cords all over the place, it’s a mess. We want Big Red to be efficient and organized.
Fifty feet of extension cord is at the ready on ReelCraft’s new spring-retracting cord reel.
ReelCraft (reelcraft.com) supplied us with their new tri-tap cord reel (#L 4545 123 9G) and pedestal-style hose reels (#DP5650 OLP).
Both reels are spring-loaded for easy retracting and small enough to fit into the service body compartments.
The extension-cord reel fits prefect sitting sideways in the main control compartment.
We had the hose reel mounted so it hangs from the “roof” of the main cabinet and the hose is accessed from the lower rear compartment on the driver’s side of the Fleetwest Load ‘N’ Go Powerbody.
As you can see from the photos, Parker mounted the hose reel’s guide plate to the floor of the main compartment and feeds into the lower one.
This mounting method keeps the compartments safe from the weather and from someone using an exposed hose exit as their way into the service body.
LINE-X IT
Another version of protection from the weather and hard use is the Line-X (linex.com) spray-on coating that covers the service body exterior and cabinet floors, as well as the eight-foot bed of our 4×4 dually.
ReelCraft hose reel feeds into the lower compartment to keep the installation clean and efficient.
Jordan Satterwhite, one of the company’s district team leaders, and several of the Line-X corporate shop guys took a lot of time prepping Big Red’s bed to make sure their protective coating would bond perfectly to the old spray-in bed liner material that was in the truck when we bought it.
They also prepped the Fleetwest service body and sand-blasted our Fab Fours bumpers before covering them with Line-X product.
POWER MODS
One of the fastest ways to do a lot of damage to a turbo-diesel is to cook a turbo by 
letting the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) get out of control under heavy loads.
That’s just the type of thing that happens when trucks like Big Red are pulling heavy trailers up long grades in the middle of the summer.
Big load, high boost, in high ambient temperatures for long durations does not a happy turbo-diesel make.
One method to help keep a lid on those extreme EGTs is to cool that fuel-air charge using a water- or water/methanol-injection system.
Those are the reasons we had Truck Supply & Outfitter’s Daniel Parker and David Adair install an AEM 50-state legal Water Injection System on our 2008 GMC Dually’s Duramax.
The upgrade (see full install on our website) takes about four hours. But it’s well worth it.
We also upgraded to a BD Diesel performance exhaust manifold ($300) while we had the stock one off.
We’ll be doing a number of other performance upgrades, so to keep on top of our progress between issues go to: propickupmag.com, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
“BIG RED” by Mobil Delvac
Sponsors
Vanair: vanair.com; 800-526-8817
Line-X’s Jordan Satterwhite preps Big Red’s bed before spraying in new bed liner. He also sprayed the service body and color-matched it to the GMC red.
Fleetwest: fleetwest.net; 866-497-7200
Hypertech: hypertech.com; 901-382-8888
American Force Wheels: americanforcewheels.com; 800-620-6259
Mile Marker: milemarker.com; 800-886-8647
Hellwig Products: hellwigproducts.com; 800-435-5944
BD Diesel Performance: dieselperformance.com; 800-887-5030
Barkley GMC: barkleygmc.com; 205-556-6600
Marathon Seat Covers: marathonseatcovers.com; 800-735-2769
B&W Trailer Hitches:
turnoverball.com; 800-248-6564
Fab Fours Bumpers: fabfours.com; 866-385-1905
Buyer’s Products Company: buyersproducts.com; 440-974-8888
Husky Liners; huskyliners.com;
800-344-8759
BOLT; boltlock.com; 877-251-8798
Transfer Flow; transferflow.com; 800-442-0056
USFLeet Tracking; usft.com; 405-749-1105
Truck Supply & Outfitters; trucksupplyandoutfitters.com; 205-553-4203
Toyo Tires; http://toyotires.com; 800-442-8696
AMP Research; amp-research.com; 800-309-6823
