Interviewing the 2009 Great American Trucking Family

Jul 29, 2009

Updated Dec 14, 2009

This month’s issue of Truckers News features the Great American Trucking Family for 2009, the Valdepenas of San Bernardino, Calif., who’ve been trucking for four generations. Truckers News editor Randy Grider took footage of part of his interview with Ralph Valdepena Jr. on his visit with the family out west earlier in the summer. The resulting vid is below. For more on the Valdepenas, check out the full story by Grider in this month’s issue here.

Round 1 of the competition is now open. Check out the videos for each matchup and cast your votes at this link, or at the bottom of this post.

Overdrive's Custom Rigs Showdown: Round 1 kicks off

With the 12-team College Football Playoff around the corner, Overdrive opens up this bracket-style challenge featuring the top 12 Custom Rigs videos published in 2025, to let you determine the overall winner for the year. Cast your round 1 votes by Dec. 17.

'Peanut's Pride': Owner-op's second chance after close brush with death

Small fleet owner's '88 Pete 379 Pretty Bitchin' with B-model Cat

DOT's non-domiciled CDL crackdown hugely popular with truck drivers: Overdrive survey results

BlueParrott S650-XT Bluetooth Headset

Catastrophic engine failure delivers customer calamity: How these owners prep for the worst

More episodes »

Pride & Polish

Overdrive’s annual Pride & Polish virtual truck show attracts entries from across the nation showcasing show-quality design, mechanical ingenuity and plenty of trucking-business pride. Find recent-history awards shows, in-depth features about the winners, and more.