So there I was, unable to sell the ’63 Kenworth RV, mainly because it had a manual transmission that folks who had money didn’t know how to drive. Anne was getting anxious and wanted to see some movement. I was out of my element and just couldn’t seem to sell it. So after explaining the problem, we decided to have a new truck custom built just to be a motorhome.
At first I went to Kenworth. The salesman was excited to get to work on spec’ing it out. We had some unusual requirements, so it wasn’t like anything he’d ever done before. The whole unit was going to be 40′ long so it needed an extra long frame. It had to have an automatic transmission. It needed to be a day cab but had to have a sleeper opening in the back of the cab. It needed to be as low to the ground as possible to allow for maximum use of space. It had to have every luxury option available. The salesman had never done anything like it.
After a few days of going over every detail, he submitted it to Kenworth. And a few days later he received a response telling him that they couldn’t do it. Why? Because Kenworth’s legal department said that they only built commercial vehicles, not recreational vehicles, and that they weren’t going to subject the company to any potential liabilities. We asked for an exception, and they still said no. Well, that sucked.
So, I went to see my friend at the local Peterbilt dealership and told him about the issue of not being allowed to build a Kenworth. I gave him the spec sheet and he said, “Leave it with me, I’ll figure something out”. A couple of days later he called me and said it’s done, they’ll build the truck, but they needed a significant deposit because it was so unique that if something went wrong, they’d have a tough time selling it to anyone else. $10,000 would do.
What did he do to convince them to build it? He lied. He told them it was for a travelling haberdasher. I didn’t even know what that was. A haberdasher is someone who sells men’s clothes, and notions to do with tailoring. Why didn’t I think of that!?
And it was a done deal. One custom Peterbilt was on its way.