Chrome Shop Mafia’s annual Guilty By Association Truck Show kicked off Friday at 4 State Trucks in Joplin, Mo., with hundreds of trucks on-hand.
The event, which goes through Saturday night, will feature a truck and tractor pull, motorcycle stunt rider show and fireworks Friday night. Saturday will feature the annual Special Olympics Convoy that will end in downtown Joplin with a concert by Tennessee trucker Tony Justice. Each truck in the convoy is required to make at least a $100 donation to the Special Olympics.
There will also be an auction held Saturday afternoon at the show with all proceeds going to Special Olympics of Southwest Missouri, along with a host of other events throughout the two-day event.
The full two-day schedule can be seen here. Some photos from Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills, who’s on-site for the show, can be seen below.
Peoria, Okla-based owner-operator Steve Hurley, hauling reefer leased to Richard Edens Trucking (with several rigs in the show this year) is showing this 1987 Peterbilt 359 powered by a B model mechanical Cat and with a Unibilt sleeper conversion.
In addition to the Texas Longhorn pride on offer, the 359’s unique interior includes this floor, made up of antique license plates Hurley’s collected over the years from customers and others.
Signs of various types, too, adorn the doors and walls on the interior, too, evidenced in this picture of young Silo, attending the show with his grandfather Roger Hilbrenner.
Hilbrenner’s 1991 Peterbilt 379 he calls “my toy,” one of many the four-years-retired independent owner-operator has retooled since coming off the road. Saving and selling old trucks to keep the good equipment in action is something of a passion of Hilbrenner’s, he says, but the 69-year-old’s thinking he’ll hand on this unit himself. Custom mods include “’everything that shines” on it, as well as a stretch from 224-inch to 284 done by the Wright Bros. shop in Lincoln, Mo., nearby to his home in Urbana.
Hilbrenner and grandson. When the former owner-operator was active, he pulled hopper bottoms and end dumps regionally, home most weekends, he says. He came to trucking in 1980 after farming.
What this show is about, in the end, both Hurley and Hilbrenner contend.
As Hurley (pictured) put it as young Silo climbed up in his rig for a look, “That’s why I come to this one, to promote a positive image and show that you can still have a little fun, too.”
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