This month’s winner has been with the NHTOC since 01/26/2003 and it is safe to say that he is an avid user of the site, evident by his 30,000+ posts!!! Always willing to share information or comment on what is going on (Um yea 30,000+ posts, YA THINK?!). It is definitely safe to say that this month’s winner is not short winded and his posts/threads prove that, but it is something that I am sure we are all very thankful for. He seems to always have the answer from his wealth of knowledge, that half the time I personally think no one is going to know what to say, but there is no stumping him.
We also have a first for TOTM this month, in that this month’s winner is now a 2X winner. Having won this honor for the 1st time back in September 2007 with his first truck by taking that truck to the extreme beast that it has become, I am sure he never would have thought that he would be selected to enjoy this honor once again. Then again, with how much he likes to talk/write about himself, maybe he had his answers all ready to go and was just waiting for the day to arrive!!
All kidding aside, this month’s winner is a true HD & NHTOC enthusiast who has been around since the beginning days of it all. This again is a very well deserving win for him & his truck and I am proud to be the person to handle this write up and thread honoring him once again for all that he has contributed to the site and for what he has done to his truck. Who knows, with this track record, we may end up seeing him getting this honor a 3rd time, if he ends up buying another truck and gets to work on it…hint, hint.
Well I am sure to no one else’s surprise, but perhaps a welcome surprise to him, as he is now again, enjoying the honor of being selected as the winner of TOTM with his 2nd 2000 Harley Truck. So let me be the first to congratulate our April 2011 TOTM winner, member #3, Josh “Harley#356” Verdieck and his 2nd 2000 Black Harley F150 build #1552 “Jekyll”.
Question # 1: What sparked your interests in the Harley trucks?
Specifically your HD Truck?
I've been addicted to the HD trucks since they came out. My race truck Hyde was the first HD F-150 to hit NJ when we bought it on July 3rd, 2000, and was the 356th one built the first year ever! Now days the trucks blend in a lot more, but back in 2000 you have to remember, the biggest rims on any vehicle were 18's, HD's were the first production vehicle to come with 20's on all 4 corners (Prowlers just had them on the rear). Truck's really didn't come factory lowered, with big chrome wheels, monochrome, with black leather interiors. Just think about late 90's pickups and thoughts of vinyl, carpet, construction sites, and 2 tone paints come to mind. The 1999 Lightning really changed the game for performance pickups, but the 2000 HD really set the bar for the luxury/appearance end. It was right before the BIG BOOM in truck and SUV sales, and the turning point where trucks went from purely work horses to more commonplace pleasure vehicles. As a truck fan already from my dad's 85 F-150 work truck, when my Dad and I walked into Ace Ford and saw the truck sitting in the middle of the showroom floor our jaws hit the floor! I can't even relate it to anything thats come out in the past 11 years that has had that same impact on me. Shelbys make me weak at the knees, the new 5.0's are tickling my fancy with their stupid fast potential, and Raptors make me drool, but they're all things that aren't stretched too far from the norm. While HD's nowdays are very commonplace, that inital impact from over a decade ago planted the seed for the HD truck addiction that is permanetly rooted in me for life!
Question # 2: Any interesting stories behind the history of vehicles
you've owned leading up to the HD truck or how you got it?
We've had Hyde since 2000, so for 9 years just having that truck was more than enough! I love driving the truck, but as it morphed into a 722 rwhp low-10 second monster, my investment into it was just too much to subject it up to daily duties and risk some other idiot on the road messing it up. I wanted to go FASTER with Hyde, but needed something more practical for starting "real" life. I actually graduated from Drexel University in June 2009 with my bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and was moving out of Philly, and looking into buying a house closer to work, so I needed a truck for DD duties, hauling materials from home depot, towing the race truck to/from the track, all while doing it in comfort and style! What better than a 2nd 00 HD truck?!
Some of you may remember tattoostuff, one of the first guys with a 02 HD to run in the 12's, and a good friend of mine. He sold his 02 HD several years ago for an SRT-10 and regretted it ever since. In June '09 he called me telling me his truck was on eBay again, he was thinking of buying it back. Well he didn't buy it back, but while looking for his truck on ebay, I stumbled across a 00 HD for sale from CT with a whopping 898 miles on the clock!!! I couldn't resist! Fresh out of college with a sign-on bonus for work burning a hole in my pocket I called the guy up the next day LOL! Drove up there that weekend to check the truck out. As soon as I walked into his fully finished 8 car garage with radiant heated ceramic tile flooring, a full kitchen and bathroom, and 7 other immaculate cars, I saw the 00 HD tucked away in the corner as I walked over in a trance having flashbacks to July 2000 when we bought the 1st HD. I didn't even walk all the way around the truck when I opened the passenger door and was hit with a wall of BRAND NEW CAR SMELL! I turned around immediately and struck a deal. 3 days later I went back and drove home in my 2nd 00 HD!
Question # 3: Give me a rough list of the mods that have been done to your truck. I know you've got a lot done, so you can just list your favorites if you'd like!
I've actually been able to keep it UNDER CONTROL on this one! Yes thats right! lol Did just the bare essentials to make it enjoyable enough to daily drive and appeasing enough to the eyes, but without going so far where I ended up with two identical trucks. The twin look stops on the appearance, and function steps in for everything else. This allowed me to go balls-to-the-wall with Hyde for racing, and turn Jekyll into my ultimate DD street truck! 14-15 mpg around town, surprising 16-18 mpg highway, 372/450 on the dyno, and 13.5 @ 100 on the track with ZERO prep and FULL weight.
Here's the general mod rundown...I lucked out and scored a brand new in the box ZERO mile 2003 HD top end supercharger assembly off the classifieds and installed that at 5k miles along with the standard supporting mods. I snagged some must-have parts off the classifieds like full exhaust, bedrug, expy console, xenarcs, 02 HD grille, and j-jent lower. Only had to buy a handful of parts new like the black L tails, 07 HD emblems, ruslow 2" coils and JLP 2-3-4" shackles, and blue flame pinstripes. Then had a handful of hand-me-down's off Hyde like a hellwig rear sway, 295/45/20 toyos, and bilstein shocks. The last mod I wanted to do was a harwood hood so it matched Hyde 99% on the exterior, but I'm pretty set on finished modding since the truck is going up for sale before the end of the year...
Question # 4: Tell us a little about yourself. Your other hobbies, your job, your favorite past time, whatever!
WORK: I'm an Engineer for the Navy working on EMALS...adios steam, hello electrons! This vid sums up where I work, I absolutely love my job! YouTube - Navy Tests Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)
SCHOOL: Finishing up my masters degree in Systems Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, should be done by the end of the year!
PLAY: With what little time I've got left besides work and school, is either working on our house (became a home owner June of last year!), or wrenching on rides! Flipped a '04 Red L that I owned for 2 months last year, did 4 motor swaps on L's last year, and heck last night and the night before was just over tpr103's helping install his new built engine in his 01 HD...(and no it didn't take 2 nights to install it, we had to do it TWICE because we forgot the metal spacer between the engine & trans the first time....whoops! lol).
Question # 5: You've been a member on the site for a while now, what is one of the best things you like about the site that keeps you around?
The people! Some of my best friends I've met on these forums, so thats what keeps me around. Even as some of those people vanish (hoffie!) others still come as they join the HD/L world. Recently been more frequent on the Mustang boards since my gf got a 2011 5.0 and the camaraderie just isn't quite the same on the forums. Speaking of which I have been MIA from NHTOC in the past month and overdue on my membership renewal, but life's been busy! Hope to catch up this weekend and renew once again!
Question # 6: What is one suggestion to help make the site a better place?
I think its about as good as it'll ever be. Excellent how-to's, a good gallery, pretty active classifieds, constant activity and posts, and great members!
Question # 7:
This is where I normally ask about where you decided on your screen name and any specific reason for choosing it?
Harley#356 is pretty self explanatory owning the 356th Harley truck. Jekyll and Hyde is pretty straightforward for the truck names too. Jekyll was the sane doctor, so the street truck got that name being the more refined, mild-mannered, street truck. Hyde was the insane evil raging villan. So the race truck got that name since it's just stupid fast and nearly 800 ft-lbs of torque to the wheels is insane in itself! lol. Your pops actually helped carry that naming theme on even more, I refer to my trailer as "Poole" that was Jekyll/Hyde's butler, so a very fitting name for the trailer! And I call the gf's 5.0 "Hastie", which was another characters name from the story, Hastie Lanyon, but Hastie just sounds cool for a fast Mustang!
Question # 8: Almost at the end, what is in the future for your truck?, so what’s the next plan of attack for your trucks future?!
A big fat FOR SALE sign! As cool as it is towing one truck with the other, and seeing both my trucks parked side by side, the novelty of having twin trucks wore off pretty fast, and isn't something I'd do again. I ran out of cheap mods to do with Hyde, so I thought Jekyll would be fun to have a stock truck to do all those inexpensive mods to, but they were the SAME mods I've already done before. There wasn't the excitement of can't waiting to see the finished results of the new mods, because all I had to do was turn around and there it was, with 10x's more mods, and over double the horsepower lol. Don't get me wrong I LOVE the street truck and don't regret it one bit, the novelty's just worn off faster than I expected. Having my gf's new 5.0 to mod is tickling my fancy for wrenching, and I'm just ready for something totally different for a replacement DD for myself. I'll still need to tow, haul supplies, and have room for an eventual family, so I'm pretty much sold on replacing Jekyll with a Blue Flame 2012 SVT Raptor supercrew! Fingers crossed they offer it with a 3.5 Ecoboost in 2012! Randy said the order banks on 2012 Raptors should open late fall, so as soon as that happens I'm placing my order and Jekyll is going up for sale. Whoever buys it will be getting one hell of a truck! Currently has 18k miles, and still in brand new condition inside & out. I daily drive it and use it as a truck, but take care of it like my race truck! I actually baby the truck so much I can probably count on 2 hands the number of times it's been WOT lol. Since it was still BRAND SPANKING NEW in June 2009, it's really not even 2 years old yet LoL! Thanks to the climate and humidity controlled time capsule it was in, it escaped the typical issues of stored vehicles! Hopefully somebody will make me a good offer for it fully modded, otherwise I'll put it back to bone stock, part it out, and sell it to someone who probably won't take as good of care of it as a NHTOC member would
Question 9: Last and final question, just an open end question for if you had anything else you wanted to mention that I didn't have a question for...here's the place to go at it! Your web site link, a plug for something, etc. etc. whatever you want to throw in!
Ah what better place to announce than here to let the NHTOC family know I just got engaged last Saturday to my gf Lauren of almost 5 years. She never said a WORD when I bought the 2nd identical twin truck to my 1st truck, and when her SRT-4 was totaled by a stoned driver hitting her PARKED car on my birthday last year, she replaced it with a 2011 5.0 Mustang, so she's definitely a keeper! LoL! Here's the pic from when I propsed. Woke her up at the butt crack of dawn to go to the bay to get some photos of her car with the new mods, she did NOT want to wake up and go lol. Popped the question and she couldn't be more excited! Not too happy about getting her pic after dragging her out of bed so early haha, but very surprised!
One last thing I'd like to mention is to a good buddy from work, Matt Deweese. He passed away last month....and believe it or not...the same thing that took Fuzion from us He was one of the only other guys at work into drag racing big time and had a 70 GTO Judge. He was actually on Pinks All-Out several times, you guys may have seen him on TV. We were going to line the Judge and Hyde up at the track this year, would have been a great race. I know Fuzion's up there covering for me though with his 02 HD, drag racing Matt with the big guy in the sky! RIP Fuzion...RIP Deweese