STEVE FRANCIS: Driving this thing, it's awesome because you get all the looks and the stares, the waves,
the thumbs up; definitely gets a lot of attention.
STEVE FRANCIS: I always like to be different, don’t like to leave anything stock. The man-hours on this vehicle
are totally epic. It’s taken me about 20 years to customise the truck to the state that it’s in today.
COMM: This is Steve, the proud owner and creator of this epic 8 wheel truck.
STEVE FRANCIS: I’m Steve Francis, the owner and builder of the Isuzu Triple XL 8 Wheel truck.
The actual length of the truck, from bumper to tailgate, is 21ft. The motor and transmission are out of a 78 Chevy
Truck. It’s got a three inch body drop, it’s got the V8 with 700R4 transmission, suicide doors.
All body lines and mouldings were shaved.
STEVE FRANCIS: I use the truck just for fun.
COMM: This truck might be a lot of fun for Steve to drive now but it started out as something much less exciting.
STEVE FRANCIS: Originally this was a 1989 Isuzu truck, four cylinder 2.6, started out just as a weekend vehicle.
The first thing of course was to, to lower it, of course wheels, got to have a nice set of custom wheels.
Then I started going to car shows, it’s a lot harder to get noticed and to be different. So I always struggled with that
and I think I’ve managed to do that now with having 8 wheels on a truck.
STEVE FRANCIS: I want to point out some other features: the firewall was completely shaved, the frame is
completely painted to a colourmatch. The mirrors here are from a motorcycle. We didn't want any big bulky
mirror whatever we just tried to go with the theme of kind of a street ride look.
Because a lot of people ask questions about these, this is a factory window. We’ve also incorporated two 32 inch
flat screen TV’s. We wanted to keep everything just kind of neat and clean, so the battery is actually mounted up
here in the front of this box here.
COMM: And the truck doesn’t just drive around, looking cool as hell, it’s also picked up numerous accolades.
STEVE FRANCIS: These are some of our favourite awards, we couldn’t keep them all in the house.
The electric guitar, it’s custom painted for best truck, another different trophy is the homemade light
down here at the bottom.
COMM: But the best thing for Steve isn’t kicking back and watching TV on the flat screen,
it’s the pure pleasure of driving it.
STEVE FRANCIS: Driving this thing, it’s awesome because you get all the looks, and the stares, the waves,
the thumbs up; definitely gets a lot of attention.
The actual drive of it, it rides really good because it is on six airbags. And it’s like driving a Limo, so you
have to remember you’ve got a lot swinging around behind you, and you have to really look for obstacles that
you might hit when you are swinging around.
COMM: Having taken 20 years to create such an awe inspiring vehicle, it must have been expensive.
Right Steve?
STEVE FRANCIS: I’m going to plead the fifth on that one because my wife will see this video and I don’t think she
would really be happy with how much it has cost me to build this truck.