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At the Great American Truck Show in Dallas a few months back this writer came across a very brave and energetic fellow named Russell Skinner. At the time he worked as the body shop manager for the Duckett Truck Center in Sikeston, Missouri which is also a Freightliner dealership. His career at Duckett went back October 1993 when he hired on in the somewhat thankless task of Warranty Administrator, eventually working his way into Service Department and finally into the Body Shop.

Actually the cosmetic and mechanical damage was just the tip of the iceberg. A week's downtime, and sometimes more, could cost the truck owner far more than the cost of the repairs.

One of the things Skinner noticed when he got settled in the body shop job was that a lot of trucks coming in were severely disabled not so much from body damage but from having the radiator destroyed. The bumper and body damage looked bad of course but didn’t really stop the rigs from doing a days work. The new style of low mounted radiators often took a severe beating from running into the animals even as small as a possum. According to Skinner, “Actually the cosmetic and mechanical damage was just the tip of the iceberg. A week’s downtime, and sometimes more, could cost the truck owner far more than the cost of the repairs. The problem was most noticeable on the Freightliners when the Century and Columbia models came out and on the Volvo VN series and became more severe on the 2007 models. They had a larger radiators because new emission requirements which caused the engines to run hotter. There was no way for the engineers to put in those larger radiators without affecting the hood aerodynamics so they had to lower the radiators putting them closer to the ground. To make matters worse the bottom section of the radiators are plastic. On the road almost anything including small animals or strips of cast off tire treads could easily penetrate the plastic front bumper and take out the condenser and the radiator all in a matter of seconds. I knew the solution was fairly simple, the trucks needed a small strong grill just behind the lower air intake in the center of front bumper and I assumed that it would just be a matter of time before the Freightliner engineers added one. But it never happened. So about a year and a half ago I came up with my own design we call the Radiator Saver.”

Now everybody has a good idea from time to time but few of us actually get behind the idea with all our energy and turn it into a viable commercial product. First Skinner borrowed a rig from the dealership and made a mock-up out of cardboard for his Radiator Saver. Then he took it to Gene Clayton, the owner of Clayton Fabrication & Metal Works, in Sikeston, to have a couple of samples made for testing. Clayton liked the idea but quickly saw that with some redesign it could be made out of much lighter aluminum without sacrificing the strength of the unit.  Next they borrowed a truck from Trucks, Inc. (Sikeston) and completed another Radiator Saver for the Volvo VN. Then using another borrowed rig they gave it a real world test using sandbags. The Radiator Saver passed with flying colors. Next they tried it on a Volvo with the same great result.

Now somebody once said, “If you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door.” What a load of nonsense. Plenty of great mousetraps have died on the shelf of some inventor’s garage for lack of the capital to develop the idea, a business plan and the plain old laziness when it came time to go and sell the world in the product. That’s where the bravery part comes in. It’s one thing to talk-the-talk and quite another to walk-the- walk. So Skinner scraped up every dime he had and headed to the Great American Truck Show in Dallas this past August where he was able to get an obscure spot on a side aisle and put up his simple display. But luck smiled on his venture when a vendor with great spot was a no-show and Skinner as allowed to move into a space with a lot more traffic. Over the three day show every major radiator manufacturer took a look at his product and most were very impressed.

Now some readers might think that the radiator manufacturers would be the last guys to want to see Skinner’s Radiator Saver on the market. After all they are in the business of selling radiators. But that’s not how the professional world works these days. You stay in business by helping your customers stay in business, not bleeding them out of their last dime. In just a few short weeks Skinner found himself in discussions with Detroit Radiator Corp., based in Wyandotte, Mich., where he eventually signed on as salesman of both his Radiator Saver and the heavy duty line of DRC’s great lineup of products including radiators without plastic tanks.

Again Skinner: “I still have a long way to go with this product, new ideas in the trucking industry are hard to introduce but once they get accepted they become part of the industry itself. And a lot of people don’t expect a big turnaround for trucking until 2009 which actually may be a blessing as owners will keep their trucks longer thus be willing to invest in cost saving equipment like the Radiator Saver. Installed this product costs less than a thousand dollars and does a better job of protecting your lower radiator than some of those big heavy “roo” bars which cost three times a much. I live and breathe this product now, especially after I got such a great reception at the truck show. And thanks to Detroit Radiator Corp., I have a full time job working directly in the industry I set out to serve in the first place. I think it will be great partnership.”

This writer thinks so too. Downtime for a week or two has killed off more single owner operators than probably any other single cause. You not only lose your income stream, you sometimes loose your place in the dispatch lineup, get behind in your bills, and make the wife as nervous as cat until the money starts coming in again. If the Radiator Saver can avoid all that grief, it’s well worth the money. Good luck Mr. Skinner, I am sure you have a hit on your hands.

For more information about the Radiator Saver visit their website at www.RadiatorSaver.com.