Bob’s big boy

For years, this rig hauled aromatic, dirt-caked hotshots into backcountry firestorms and out of flame-whipped canyons.

Cool camp mobile, Bob Greer figured, upon learning it was for sale. But it was the truck’s utility in the urban wild that clinched the deal.

Greer bought the International S1600 three years ago for $7,500 and is still keen on its Forest Service puke-green paint job, though he’s had the vinyl seats reupholstered, the bed Rhino-coated to ward off rust and the 20-inch tube tires replaced with 22.5-inch radials, the kind semis use.

The truck fits 11 people in its high-backed, van-like seats. It runs on diesel -- 8 miles per gallon -- and has 12 gears: 10 forward, two reverse. Lumbering on stagecoach-like leaf springs, it tends to lag on hills, but Greer says he has no trouble pushing it to 70 mph on freeways: “It has the power to run somebody over.” It’s not hard to parallel park unless he’s hauling a rented box or open trailer that it can tow with barely a twitch of the tach.

The truck’s immensity pays off during occasional camping trips to the Laguna Mountains in San Diego County. Out of six roof boxes, Greer unloads a tent, sleeping bags, folding chairs and an inflatable raft. He’ll stash everything from camp stoves to his briefcase and books in eight street-level containers.

More than backcountry convenient, the rig is extremely safe, says Greer, a San Diego nurse who started commuting in the beast a year ago after a hit-and-run driver totaled his car. Now even Hummers, he says, “yield the right of way.”

-- Ashley Powers