Now It's Home, Home on the Road

By J.D. Reed.

Just a few years ago, the nation's long-haul truck drivers were celebrated as the last cowboys. Sitting high and lonesome in 18-wheelers, they put the pedal to the metal, trying to outrun "Smokey" and middle-of-the-road conformity. The flip side of the image: stressful schedules and strained marriages. But now split-level suburbia is the new deal on wheels. An up-and-coming crowd of diesel outriders are bringing their homes and their wives along in fully outfitted, self-contained living quarters set behind the driver's cab. If they need a handle, call this new breed truppies, upscale truckers who like to have a place to call home wherever they are.

Demand for the stretched-out sleepers began to heat up after a 1982 congressional decision allowing longer cab lengths without a corresponding cut in precious cargo space. A majority of the 15,000 tractors produced by California's Peterbilt truck company now have some type of sleeper accoutrement. Double Eagle Industries of Shipshewana, Ind., which expects to produce 250 of the longer units this year, has fallen four months behind orders. Made of aluminum to save weight, the mobile home-like sleepers range in length from 28 in. to 120 in. front to back and cost from $2,400 for a basic single-bed model to $40,000 for a compartment more elaborate and feature filled than many recreational motor homes.

When Dan Campbell, 35, who operates out of Cypress, Calif., and Wife Robin, 30, haul high-technology gear across the country for Bekins Van Lines, they haul a little high-tech luxury for themselves in their $35,000, 120-in.-long cabin. While on the road, Robin prepares broiled chicken and fresh steamed vegetables in the kitchenette complete with a microwave oven. The thick pile carpet and acoustically padded walls are easily cleaned with the central vacuum- cleaning system. After dinner she may watch a prerecorded episode of Dallas on their VCR and remotecontrolled color TV. When 6-ft. 4-in. Dan stretches out on the double bed for a night's sleep, Robin, who quit her job in a tax collection office to become one of the nation's 48,600 licensed women drivers, takes the wheel. The old stereotype? "We don't associate with that," says Robin. Indeed, they do not even communicate much with other drivers over the ubiquitous CB radio. They prefer to schedule upcoming jobs on a mobile cellular telephone.

Sleepers have solid business advantages, starting with time saving. Says Double Eagle President Ray Miller: "If a load of West Coast produce has to be East in three days, not three weeks, a husband and wife team with a sleeper can do the job." Lone drivers must either bunk up at cracker-box motels or slump over the wheel after the maximum ten-hour stretch allowed by federal regulation. Spelled by co-drivers, truckers sometimes sleep in their living quarters or just stand, walk around and ease white-line tension. "The better the equipment, the safer the ride," says Tom Phillips, 24, who just purchased a $75,000 International Harvester cab with a 42-in. sleeper compartment. "A tired driver is a bad driver."

So is one with indigestion. "Ninety percent of truck-stop food isn't worth speaking about," shudders seven-year Veteran Driver Tom Burghardt of Hicksville, N.Y. He estimates he will save $200 a month on motel and food bills with his new $22,500 Double Eagle Windjammer. Dave Kahlig and his wife Mitch of Fort Recovery, Ohio, have yet to install a microwave in their 66- in., $11,000 Double Eagle sleeper. But they have a refrigerator and cook foil-wrapped meats on the truck's engine between the red-hot turbo pipes. "It takes about 10 to 15 miles to cook a hamburger," says Mitch, "60 for a chicken. Once we lost some turkey steaks when we hit a pothole near Detroit."

Although the purchase prices are steep, the saving on food, lodging and layovers can be attractive, particularly for a cost-conscious couple on the road ten months of the year. A few maintain no on-the-ground house at all and stay with relatives during their short periods of downtime. Bill and Linda Yancey of Chula Vista, Calif., figure they will soon pay for their $21,000 sleeper by sharing driving time. "It takes two to keep it going," says Bill, who adds that "it's nice to have someone in this with you as a partner."

Sleepers are benefiting marriages as well as budgets. Before Roger and Jill Spencer of Montgomery, Pa., got theirs, he was home only twelve days in a six- month period. "When I told him," says Jill, "he didn't believe it. I missed him and all." Like many trucking couples, the Spencers share a passion for their rig. The couple's $100,000 Peterbilt truck and Double Eagle sleeper combination has won several prizes at truck shows. "It's almost like our baby," admits Jill. And for those actually having a baby? On March 15, a little girl, Julia Louise, was born to the Yanceys of Chula Vista, and they consider it no problem. They are thinking about installing a nursery.

With reporting by Cheryl Crooks/Los Angeles and Lisa Kartus/Chicago