First impressions are everything to Big Bore Drilling Certified Septic and Hydroflushing of Fresno, California — hence the head-turning truck wrap adorning the company's 2015 Peterbilt 567.

“I said, ‘I want the hottest-looking truck there is,’” says owner Henry Damm. “Our main services are installations and repairs, and we use pumping to look for that type of work. With that truck, when it shows up, your neighbors are staring at it like, ‘What is that?’ It brings business because people notice the truck.”

As a play on words of the company’s name, a boar accompanies the flames in the decal, which has been the company “mascot” for the last 20 years. “It’s the wrong bore, but that’s OK,” Damm says.

Catching the attention of potential customers isn’t the only benefit of the wrap, though. It’s also really easy to maintain, according to Damm. “It doesn’t water stain, and it hasn’t been all torn up. That’s the first truck we put a wrap on. One thing that’s very nice about the wrap is I can change it any time. I would definitely do it again — put a wrap on the truck.”

And if part of the wrap does happen to get damaged, it’s a simple matter of getting a patch reprinted and applied to the damaged area. “They gave me some leftover flame (decals), so I can always go, ‘Oh, this kind of matches,’ and stick it on there,” he says.

Speccing out a Classy Truck

Damm says he thinks of his operators when he’s speccing out a new truck. “I always try to make things easier for my operator. On one of our trucks, we were able to slide the dump hose underneath the tank itself. It’s different things like that.”

And since there’s not a lot of storage space on a pumper truck, Big Bore added custom holders for tools on the Peterbilt. “We built those for holding our probe, rakes and shovels, and we did all of the custom mounts ourselves,” says Damm. “The Crust Buster came with its own mount, so you just have to bolt it onto the truck.

“When I look at a truck, I don’t like a lot of stuff hanging on it that’s visible, other than your hoses that have to be there, so we put the cabinets on to put our stuff in,” he says. “I just try to keep it looking clean and professional. I want to stand out above the rest, as far as the way the truck looks and is maintained.”

The truck also features an enclosed National Vacuum Equipment blower, which came as part of a package unit Imperial Industries offered. “This thing has so much power. It’s really tremendous. It doesn’t get hot, and it doesn’t spit out oil all over the driveways.”

Compliancy in California

The main reason Big Bore opted for a new truck versus a used one comes down to compliancy and quality. “We bought new because we had wrecked our 2010 truck, and to be smog-compliant in California you have to have a 2012 or newer. But you don’t want to buy a used 2012 or ’13 because they have all the bugs in them,” Damm says. 

Compliancy also influenced the decision to go for an aluminum tank instead of steel. “It’s just lighter weight for California axle weight restrictions, and it looks good.”

The 3,600-gallon tank size is ideal for Big Bore’s service area as well. “Most tanks in our area are 1,500 gallons, so we can usually get two before we have to dump it.”

Although compliancy may not have been the driving force behind going with a manual transmission, it was still a factor. Damm says he’s never had an automatic truck, partly because they’re a little heavier and he didn’t want it interfering with his payload. “I might consider an automatic in the future, but this truck shifts and drives like a sports car.”

Overall, the comfort level of the 2015 Peterbilt is unparalleled, according to Damm. “I love how quiet it is, and the shifting is so smooth and short — the steering, the driving.”