You may have seen this fun pick-up truck driving around the city of Weiser. It belongs to Bob Gallagher. He and his wife Jacyn Gallagher, our current District 9 Idaho State Representative, retired and moved to Weiser from the state of Oregon about three years ago. “We didn’t know anybody in the whole state of Idaho, we found a place we liked and Weiser seemed like a nice area, so this is where we ended up,” stated Gallagher.
Gallagher thinks of himself as a tinkerer. He enjoys tinkering with a new project every once and awhile. In the past he has created a street legal drivable speed boat and a motorized cart made from a salon hair dryer. His recent project is this blue Dodge pick-up.
“I stumbled on a farm truck and not long after that I bought another one that was almost the same model. Neither one of them were in really good condition. I tell people I took two cruddy farm trucks and turned them into one cruddy farm truck.” One end of Gallaghers rig is a 1998, while the other end is a 1996. He jokingly stated that he actually has titles for both ends of his truck. Gallagher shared that although the truck still has two steering wheels only one of them works. He shared what he referred to as a simple process converting the trucks, “Essentially I cut the truck in half and then extended the chassis, the frame, by twenty-four inches. Then I welded it back together. I took the bed off and plopped the other cab on backwards.”
Gallagher shared that people often ask him if it can drive both ways. He says, “I guess it does because it goes in reverse, but it actually just drives like a regular truck.” The truck’s second cab is used for storage and no longer has seats. The motor has been removed and the once hood, is now a trunk for the truck. Gallagher enjoys driving the truck and seeing the reactions of those seeing it driving down the road, “It gets a lot of smiles and thumbs up.” Another question he gets asked a lot is if he has ever gotten into the wrong end, “I have definitely opened the wrong door. I open the door and I’m all, “Oh! Wrong end.”
Gallagher does not have any current projects he is working on, stating, “Nothing right soon, but eventually something will grab my interest and I will build something else.” He did mention that he wouldn’t mind making another street legal speed boat at some point. In time and with a little inspiration, the citizens of Weiser may see another unique project from Gallagher in the future.
