Big Deal

As Big & Green as Its Namesake

- Chris Shelton

Randall Robertson thinks big ... really big.

If the name triggers a synapse, it’s probably because you saw the feature on his earlier truck, a ’72 K50 Crew Cab one of-none Pegasus unicorn that answered the question, “What would a contemporary truck look like half a century ago if today’s market existed back then?”

Lifted, rolling twenties, and clattering away thanks to a Cummins swap, Robertson’s Duke (a homage to his spirit animal, John Wayne) is the unbrodozer. Diametrically opposed to the countless C10s laying rocker at any given automotive gathering, it elicited a strong response, inevitably positive even among those who usually regard brodozers with contempt.

There was only one problem with the Duke: there was really no way Randall could outdo it, or so they said, which doesn’t sit well with Randall. As the owner of Rtech Fabrications, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, it’s his job to raise the bar with each build. And given that the Duke won its class at the Brothers 19th Annual Chevy and GMC Truck Show and Shine (Rtech’s second win in as many years), the deck really did look stacked against him.

By the time we met a few weeks after that show, Randall had already formulated the next build. To be fair, he probably hatched the plan early in the Duke’s construction. “We have to do something completely different,” I remember him telling me. He was pretty sparse on details, but it was obvious that he knew exactly where he’d direct his crew for this next magnum opus. “It’s going to be big,” he assured.