Take between 50 and 150 of the most successful owner/operators and company drivers and ask them to take up to a week off work. Then have them do it six to eight times a year, or more. Then ask them to spend two to three days cleaning and polishing their trucks after they've gone through the truck wash. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
Yet for people who show their trucks, this is their hobby, their recreation, perhaps their passion. For some, it's how they spend vacation time. For others, it's a way of promoting their operations so they can attract those high-paying loads. But no matter what their reasons for entering, show truck people bond in deep and lasting friendships.
"You make good friends and meet very nice people," says Ruth Jones, Lone Jack, Mo. "Most are very helpful. It becomes a social event. We'll get together after judging is over, and when the show closes for the day, we'll have cookouts." Her husband, Dee, a company driver for All Freight Systems, Kansas City, Kan., adds, "Sometimes spectators will join us and become friends. It's all about friendship."
Ruth and Dee appreciate All Freight's supporting their efforts. They contribute and help arrange sponsorships for the company-owned 2000 Freightliner Classic XL. It has extra lights and chrome, including a spectacular 24-inch bumper (leaving only four inches of ground clearance) with a light box behind a large cut-out of the company's logo. It looks so good, in fact, that All Freight builds much of its advertising around the truck.
Don't think you have to be an owner/operator to compete successfully. The Joneses have numerous trophies. Don and Karen Bartley, Tacoma, Wash., who tied for second place in the 1998 Truck-Lite Trophy series for the National Association of Show Trucks (NAST) national championship, did so in a Kenworth owned by Navajo.
"Showing is more about cleanliness than it is about accessories," says NAST Executive Director and former competitor Bob Guy of Cincinnati. "Most people don't realize how clean a truck has to be. Clean from a truck wash is fine for going down the road, but clean for a show means inside the frame rails, inside the battery box and in between dual wheels. It has to be cleaner than when you picked it up new from the dealer.
"If you're going to be a regular competitor, you're always cleaning your truck," Guy adds. "We have members who will tilt the hood while fueling, just to clean the insides of the front wheels. Some competitors come in Monday for a Friday show and spend the entire time cleaning. Clean tire grooves can make a one place difference."
Ruth put it another way. "You're never finished. It's just ‘Rags Down'," she says, referring to the moment of truth when competitors must stop cleaning and await judgment.
The Joneses learned, as do many competitors, by entering and doing, "Four years ago we entered at Louisville. We figured the $35 entry fee was a small price for guaranteed parking near the show. Fresh from the truck wash, we came with no rags, no polish, nothing. We learned in a hurry; not just how to clean a truck, but how nice the competitors can be. The driver next to us shared his cleaning supplies. Next time we were prepared, and we kept doing better and better.
"Each show, someone shows up with something new and different," Ruth says. "You think about it between shows, and try to come up with something unique. Having a theme for the outside or the sleeper can do it. Our sleeper is done in 1950s style, so we're always looking for 1950s items to add."
"What you're looking for," adds Dan Feeley, owner of NMMC, Lockport, Ill., "is eye appeal." Dan's trophy winner, a 1998 Peterbilt 379 four-axle tractor, has lots of that, with gray and silver "ghost flames" painted on the white tractor. "Just think of what would be your dream truck. It can be all one color, as long as it is your style. Look for all the sources for accessories, truckstops, chrome shops, everything. Scour the magazines. But don't just go out and buy lots of chrome. Be selective and build gradually. Upgrade your lights, too."
Dan built a custom harness for all the extra LEDs on his tractor. For those adding extra trailer lights, Both Truck-Lite and Grote, the two leading LED lamp manufacturers, offer custom lengths of modular, internally grounded, sealed harness sections. LEDs are recommended whenever you add extra lights, so wiring and alternators won't be overloaded. Dan suggests using separate circuits for cab lights, with heavier gauge wiring to take the added current.
He avoids butt-connectors, preferring to solder wire and cover it with heat-shrink tubing. Truck-Lite's NYK compound helps prevent moisture-induced corrosion wherever connectors are used, such as at the lamps themselves.
"When you have a choice between chrome and stainless," Dan advises, "choose stainless. Chrome is cheaper, but after one winter, it will need replacing." Hendrickson makes a line of stainless-clad aluminum bumpers that last, save weight and look great.
"People buy uncoordinated," he adds. "Just adding stuff does not make a show truck. The design must flow. I added the flames to enhance the front bumper and big shiny grille. The extended visor points to the grille, which becomes the focal point of the truck."
Bob Harris runs the "Show and Shine" contests at the International Trucking Show in Las Vegas, and the Southern Trucking Expo in Atlanta. He sees them as "an opportunity for the men and women of our industry to show the pride they have in their jobs and equipment. We like to see new contestants. It's great the way the old hands teach and encourage the newcomers. The competition is tough, but it's family.
"One time, though, a first-time competitor came in thinking he had the best truck ever and he should get first place," Harris recalls. "When he ‘only' got third, he started cursing me, the show and all the entrants. It got so bad, I had to ask him to leave. That was just plain bad sportsmanship, and that's what it is about, too. We want everyone to have a good time and we won't have someone ruin it for the others. That's the only time I ever had to take such drastic action.
"Part of my job is to teach the judges what to look for. Every truck must be judged in the exact same way so the playing field is level," Harris says.
"At NAST shows, we try to get DOT officers to be judges," Guy says. "They know trucks, and are easily taught what to look for. They don't know the competitors, so politics never enters into it.
"NAST just started a novice class, where new people are judged by experienced competitors who teach as they judge," Guy continues. "Most of the old pros are really anxious to help, and some even conduct classes on how to polish, buff or detail a truck the best and easiest way. And, so the average guy doesn't have to go head to head with the top competitors, we've given them a class of their own, the Truck-Lite Trophy class, where its straight head-to-head competition. None of this having NASCAR Winston Cup drivers competing in the Busch Series. You compete at your level. Everyone loves to compete, but it needs to be fair, too."
Ruth Jones summed it up best. "It's addictive. Once judging is over, you go look at everyone else then go around to all the accessory vendors. But the best part is when the day is done, everyone gets together to socialize."
Winning Ways
