Albert Jensen and his family are seed growers and farm about 11,000 acres near Drumheller, which means they have a large line of farm equipment to look after. Several years ago he was using a short highway tractor Kenworth T800 to haul grain. However it became apparent that it was too small a truck for pulling Super B trailers, so he realized that it was proportionally powered quite well to be used as a service truck. Jensen lengthened the Kenworth chassis by about three feet and had a service body custom built to his own specifications by a dealer. He equipped the truck with a hoist which has a lift capacity of around 9500 pounds. It can reach out about 45 feet from the truck, which makes it really handy around the farm. Halogen lights on the side of the truck provide all the light they need for most field situations, including those late night combining marathons. The service truck carries 500 gallons of diesel fuel and also has a 250 gallon water tank. A boiler right on the truck means they can use their pressure washing system in the field even when temperatures slip below freezing. A 260 cubic foot screw compressor gives them plenty of air capacity for jobs such as blowing off farm equipment. Even though it seems like a large service truck, Jensen says there still isn’t enough room for everything they would ideally like to carry on it. Not including the truck itself, the conversion cost them about $125,000. Jensen says it’s been a very good investment, especially since they use the truck just about every day.
Jensen and his service truck will be featured on an upcoming episode of the Prairie Farm Report, on December 14 and 15 and during the week of the 16th along with a number of other farm shop related ideas.
You can see this Prairie Farm Report episode several times during the week of December 16 on The Rural Channel on Shaw Direct on channel 385 including Monday & Saturday at 7:00 PM- MST.
