About Us
About Us
It all started in the gas hills of Southeast Wyoming. 15, 16 hours a day, sometimes 18 hours or even more. 6 and often 7 days a week chasing those loads of crude oil and always taking immaculate care of my most valued possession, my beloved 2016 Peterbilt 389 Glider! My buddies and I were all greasers, which is to say, we used grease on our hood supports to stop the dreaded and ever pervasive hood squeak. We all worked overtime to take pride in our rides and none of us would ever, under any circumstances, ever, use socks or rags or gloves…to stop that wretched hood squeak. We had a running joke about sockers, that their poor trucks looked like Mr. Snuffleupagus and were embarrassed to be seen with their hoods open Imao!!! I mean seriously, I’ve even heard of trucks with major fire damage caused by socks falling off of hood supports and landing on a turbo or manifold and catching fire.
All that time in the glass day after day and constantly applying grease to my hood supports had me thinking, there has to be a better way to deal with these squeaky hoods. After doing a little math and figuring I was spending $150 to $200 a year extra at the truck wash, for cleaning my engine compartment and yet there was always grease on my firewall and harnesses. Not to mention the grease always seemed to find its way in the cab, on the seat and steering wheel, you know, everywhere grease does not belong. I decided to experiment with some different kinds of material that would allow the receptacles to glide on the hood support bumpers and dampen the noise. I started talking to my owner/operator friends and it seemed we had a consensus, if there were a quality accessory available made specifically for our trucks that stopped that doggone hood squeak we would surely pay $75 to $100 a year. As a matter of fact we all agreed that would be a great value and an option we all wish we had.
After my kids’ Godmother sewed up some prototypes, 5 of my owner/operator friends agreed to help me test them in the field. We tested several different designs and materials over the course of a year both in the oilfields and otr before we had a product that performed to our expectations and standards and would be a great value to us and ultimately to you, as we all know how hard truckers work to earn a living. We felt like we had something that was durable, would be very cost effective and look great in your engine bay…VOILA, Hood Skinz was born!!!