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Meet Big Hooker, the Rat Rod Tow Truck That Lives Up to the Go Big or Go Home Mantra

Where aesthetics, audacity and functionality meet is a rat rod like no other: The Big Hooker. Designed and built by Brandon Kibbee from Kansas, this tow truck is both a showpiece and a utility vehicle, as well as a local celebrity and spectacular frankenvehicle.
The Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big Hooker 22 photos
Photo: Facebook / Brandon Kibbee
The Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big HookerThe Ford-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big Hooker
The Big Hooker is a monster of a vehicle, made from cannibalized or repurposed parts. Its name is meant to designate its utility, that of a tow truck with a big hook, but you’re excused if you thought different when seeing the headline above. The double-entendre is most definitely on purpose.

This truck is the creation of Kansas-based Brandon Kibbee who, why yes, also happens to own a repair and tow business. In a new interview with Barcroft Cars (see the video below), he plays it cool when asked about the design, even though he admits the actual build was a challenge: it was the result of many hours at the wheel, thinking of how a perfect tow truck would look.

Brandon is a man of the “go big or go home” mentality, and he says it himself. The Big Hooker is a good example of that, because it’s a gigantic truck that you hear (and smell) before you actually get to see it. And that’s no small feat, because you couldn’t possibly overlook it: it sits at 9 feet (2.7 meters) high and 28.6 feet (8.7 meters) long, and weighs 14,000 pounds (6,350 kg). Just in case you could somehow miss it, it also sports a comically-sized, 3-foot (0.9-meter) tall aluminum hook in the back, over which the American flag waves in the wind.

The Ford\-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big Hooker
Photo: Facebook / Brandon Kibbee
In reality, The Big Hooker is a frankenvehicle, because, Brandon explains, where he’s from, you don’t really go out to the store to get parts: you use whatever you have lying around. He calls it a “Ford-ish” truck, and with good reason. The cab crew – which sits the entire family in perfect comfort, despite being mostly sheet metal – is made of a 1951 cab welded to a 1949 cab, both from trucks owned by Brandon’s grandfather. It was the most challenging part of the project, because Brandon is not a fan of working with sheet metal, and he’s convinced he won’t ever do it again.

The chassis is from a 2007 Freightliner semi truck, with the exhausts going from front to rear on each side, and doubling as both guard and running boards. The seats are sourced from a Ford Harley-Davidson Edition truck, and are perhaps the only parts on the rig that look – if not actually are – new. Ish.

The exposed engine is a two-stroke Detroit Diesel 8V92 mated to an Allison automatic transmission and producing 600 hp and some 2800 lb/ft of torque. This rig can hit top speeds of 85 mph (137 kph), serve as a tractor pull rig with ease and, as footage included in the videos below can attest, burn serious rubber at all kinds of events. In fact, from what Brandon says, The Big Hooker goes through tires like one does through clean socks, and that’s because it does some 10,000 miles (16,100 km) annually just to attend shows. To burn rubber.

The hook, which gives the rig’s name, is also custom made (so is the radiator). Because it had to be the right size for such an impressive rig, Brandon first created a foam mold for it and then set out to build a forge for the real thing. It was more or less a hole in the ground, where he and his team melted all the scrap they could find, resulting in the gigantic aluminum centerpiece. People love it, as it’s obvious from the shine on the lower half, from where they sit on it.

The Ford\-ish tow rig is also a showpiece, the rat rod known as The Big Hooker
Photo: Facebook / Brandon Kibbee
Brandon is obviously proud of his creation, but whenever he talks to the media about his “Ford-ish” hot rod, which is now a bona fide celebrity, he tends to downplay it. It’s “a pile of parts that I threw together to have fun with,” he once said. He seems to reiterate the idea in the newest interview, in which he admits with glee that “the funnest part is driving it!”

For every one else, for whom driving The Big Hooker is not an option, the funnest part about it is that it exists – and that it’s such a shameless exercise in outrageousness.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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