15-year-old rebuilds Remote Control GNTC Tractor-Trailer
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What started out as a broken Remote Control (RC) tractor-trailer truck found in a storage room has turned into a mascot for Georgia Northwestern Technical College's (GNTC) Commercial Truck Driving program, says Program Director Robert Browder.
The four-wheel drive RC tractor-trailer Robert uncovered was missing several parts, but instead of throwing it away he handed it off to 15-year-old Elijah Knox, son of GNTC graduate Joshua Knox. Elijah has a passion for finding broken RC cars and fixing them up.
“The reason I got into this project was because my dad was going to GNTC at the time and I wanted to give myself a challenge and pull something off that no one else had been able to do,” Elijah said. “This has been a hobby of mine since I was 14 and it is something I am really passionate about."
The cab of the truck was too badly damaged to be fixed, Elijah explained, so the 15-year-old built an entire new cab using parts from other RC cars and trucks. The original cab was built in 1986 and Elijah tried to make the replacement as close to the original as possible.
“The cab was made from a plastic die cast and the frame from two Ford® F-250 trucks,” he explained.
After Robert got the truck back, he had it wrapped to look like one of the GNTC tractor-trailers driven by students during class. The RC rig sits on a shelf in Robert’s office where it stands out against the others in the program’s collection.
“I keep a model of every truck company that hires our students,” he said. “It makes a cool visual and shows what we do at GNTC works.”
The Commercial Truck Driving certificate program provides basic training in the principles and skills of commercial truck operations. At the completion of the program, the student is administered the Georgia CDL Skills exam. The program is offered both day and evening. The Commercial Truck Driving program is one of the High-Demand Career programs, covered by the HOPE Career Grant for qualifying students. For more information about GNTC’s Commercial Truck Driving program, contact us Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. - 4:15 p.m., at 866-983-4682.
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John Popham
Marketing Media Specialist
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