Things were really just getting going on the sizable Lincolnton, N.C., acreage of BPW (“Best Possible Way”) Transport owner Brad Wike this past Friday afternoon when I took this picture. What’s shown here, I realized later, is independent owner-operator Eric Engbarth’s 2009 Kenworth W900 pulling in to park up that afternoon at Wike’s Southern Classic Truck Show.
Erick (left) with his 18-year-old son, Jacob, who showed the early 1950s Case tractor next to his father’s W900.As is often the case at the myriad of local/regional shows around the country year in and out, Engbarth had what he said was one of the most particularly awesome things to happen to him at a truck show, Friday after the sun went down — several of the owners and vendors assembled for the evening projected Smokey & the Bandit on Engbarth’s recent-vintage dry van to pass the time.
It’s a testament to the welcoming, inclusive spirit that is Wike’s show, which regular readers may remember for last year’s edition, where Wike and company brought together five of the most famous movie trucks of 1970s and ’80s in one place. Run through scenes from this year’s event below — you’ll see the “Hollywood Hill” got what might be one of its last reprises for the time being this year. And I met with/interviewed a variety of owner-operators — stay tuned for more from many of them as I get through the vids, pictures and more over the next month or two.
Wike himself owns this Bandit KW replica as well as the original Pete used in the Duel film.
Sparta, Wis.-based owner-operator Paul Sagehorn owned both original Movin’ On and B.J. and the Bear conventional/cabover KWs until recently. This show represented what might well be the last for a while for the conventional. At the end, Sagehorn was trasferring the 1974 W9 to its new owner, Memphis-area-based Mark Stracener, a FedEx pilot with a long history of trucking interest. Stracener plans, among other things, to eventually house the unit at the Art & Speed Classic Car Gallery in Collierville, Tenn.
Used in the film Convoy, this Rubber Duck 1970 Mack’s caretaker, Anthony Fox of the 20-truck, Rome, Ga.-based fleet that bears his name, also owns the stunt trailer used in one of the film’s many crash scenes.
The trailer is a 5,800-gal 1960 Trailmobile tanker used for asphalt in the past but stripped of most of its functional interior structure prior to the movie, excepting the shell.
A cabover/conventional row near the front of Wike’s property on Blackburn Bridge Rd. in Lincolnton. A variety of musical acts were on the stage throughout the day Saturday.
Lewis Cantrell of DTP Chrome Shop in Spartanburg, S.C., brings his old United Van Lines moving trailer to the Southern Classic every year, using it as a display trailer to sell chrome parts. Shown here during set-up Friday, newly pulling the trailer was the 1990 Freightliner FLD mid-roof, powered by a Caterpillar 3406E. A customer sold him the unit after some years of Cantrell borrowing other trucks for the purpose.
Who’s the kid behind the wheel of that cabover Pete? Why, that’s Carson, owner-operator James Ryan’s youngest. Ryan, based in Belmont, N.C., hauls a mostly dedicated container run from the port of Savannah, Ga., back up to the Charlotte area, leased to Lightning Transportation. The rig is powered by a 350 Cummins Big Cam 4 — and was formerly owned by Ryan’s father, small fleet owner Art Nelson.
