GREEN HORNET

My project creation began with the purchase of the Castle Shannon VFD's retired 1946 Ahrens-Fox pumper truck. They named it the "Green Hornet".   Our fire engine is the last of three limited production units made with the first crew cab in the United States.  And, ours is the first in the U.S. to be painted green.  One of  the originals is lost in South Dakota, and the other truck was destroyed fighting fires in the 9/11 disaster.

After sitting on Jr's lot for a few years, the cab and some special trim pieces were removed and brought into the shop. There it sat for 13 more years waiting for the right idea to formulate.   Bingo!  Jr decided

to design an articulated hitch attached to a new 2018 Dodge truck chassis;  then he designed an all-aluminum, three-car, reclining trailer.

A 2018 Dodge 3500 Diesel AWD was purchased without the bed.  Everything was sold off to a dealer except the chassis, engine, AWD, misc. parts and interior.   The "Green Hornet" cab was lowered onto the Dodge chassis and a great deal of fabrication of the fenders, nose and hood began.

Much of the body fabrication was done by Bryce Jobkar who also applied the PPG Paints.   Donnie Bele put in hours of fitting & sanding.  PPG Mack Truck Green was selected for the body and Tuxedo Black was applied to the roof.   [See our photos at the end on this story]

The patent pending articulated hitch was fabricated onto the chassis. Why an articulated hitch?  Our Green Hornet/Trailer combination has a

50' overall length.  With this hitch design, we only need a turning radius 

of 50.75'.   A conventional tractor/trailer with a similar wheelbase would

require 120.5'; the equivalent of a baseball field.  A patent is pending 

for our articulated hitch.

Jr designed an all-aluminum, one-off fabricated trailer with a pneumatic system to lower the bed to ground level for custom, and specialty sports cars.  Extra ramping is not required.  Patent pending.

A unique strapping system eliminates the need to crawl under the car or

onto the trailer to attach straps and ratchet them down tight.   Jr's design allows you to stand off to the side of the trailer and attach the wheel straps, connect the ends to the floor rails and execute the tightening with a key-fob button and an on-board winch.  Manufacturing of our strap design was done by Snappin Turtle. A design patent is pending.

Regionally & nationally known manufacturers, and fabricators were used throughout the project under "Jr" Redden's close supervision and hands-on workmanship.  Quality and appearance were priorities.

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