Custom Rigs

Add your voice to 'Overdrive's Music to Truck By,' BlackOut tribute truck headed Daytona-way

Chuck Timbrook running south for Bike Week March 5 with his vets-support rig, and: Help us celebrate professional drivers and submit an intro that may be featured on the new show.

February 24, 2021

The 1999 Freightliner Classic that is Timbrook's 'BlackOut' support rig is pictured on the boardwalk in Ocean City. | Photo courtesy of Chuck Timbrook

Albert Goyette's 2021 Peterbilt 579

The rig sports a 510-hp Paccar with a 13-speed. Goyette uses the truck for flatbed heavy-hauling (160,000 pounds) in Michigan and northern Indiana.

February 23, 2021

John Gillum's 1987 Peterbilt 379

Despite the similarities in paint scheme, the rig is not a former BJ Hughes truck, Gillum says, as it is red underneath the white and blue paint. He has named the truck "Snakebit," as "it bites me almost every time I work on it," he says.

February 19, 2021

Austin Stocker's 1995 Kenworth W900B

The truck wears many hats, as it is set up to be able to quickly change from a dump truck to a fifth-wheel tractor and hook to a lowboy or side dump, depending on the work. It's powered by a 650-hp Cat 3406E with an 18-speed and 3:90 rears.

February 12, 2021

The Freightliner FLD's biggest fan

In this video, small fleet owner Dan Davidson details extensive refurbishment work put into a bevy of FLDs through recent years. This 2000 model's rebirth included an engine replacement with a 15-liter Caterpillar 6NZ, among other work.

February 11, 2021

2000 Freightliner Fld Davidson Trucking

Todd Brenny's 1977 Peterbilt 352

The rig is powered by a 350-hp Cummins with a 13-speed. It features air-ride, dual factory exhaust and factory air conditioning.

February 9, 2021

Overdrive Radio

Best nanner pudding on I-75 -- and this 1980 KW, restored

Each of the independent truck stops profiled in this funny, moving southbound podcast caper claim to be the first to have advertised the special on the CB decades ago. Also: A new build in this custom-restored rig with Dustbusters in Wyoming.

February 5, 2021

From left: Dustbusters owner Craig Prete, mechanics Austin Oliver and Kipp Knight, shop foreman Cole Potter, and owner-operator/mechanic Martin Herman. Pictured with a recently finished custom-restore of Prete's 1980 Kenworth W900A daycab, outfitted with a rollback body.

Andy Bledsoe's 1997 Freightliner FLD132 Classic XL

The truck sports a 600-hp 12.7-liter 60 Series Detroit with a 13-speed. The engine was originally setup at 430-hp, and it had been rebuilt at some point, Bledsoe says. He had it rebuilt and upgraded to 600-hp.

February 5, 2021

One-of-a-kind Mack B75 custom-built from the ground up

In a build reminiscent of Johnny Cash's hit song "One Piece at a Time," longtime diesel mechanic Mike Flake used parts from several trucks, as well as a bevy of parts he built himself, to piece together this unique take on a classic rig.

February 3, 2021

Mike Flake built this one-of-a-kind 1960 Mack B75 over the course of two-and-a-half years. He believes from his research it is the only or one of very few B-model Macks with a stretched hood in the United States.

Lynn Heinlen's 2020 Freightliner Coronado

The rig sports a 12.7-liter Detroit and an Eaton 13-speed. Heinlen has added 445/50R22.5 super single tires and stainless half fenders made for the wider rubber.

February 2, 2021

Evel Knievel's Mack haul rig, restored

For Overdrive's 60th anniversary, take a run back through the half-decade-long journey of a famous Mack from weeds in a Florida yard to a fully custom-restored museum showpiece in Topeka, Kan., as covered in Overdrive.

February 1, 2021

The truck and trailer -- all done.

James Grehan's 1999 Kenworth W900L

The rig is powered by a 525-hp Cummins N14 with 1,850 ft.-lbs. of torque. It features stainless-wrapped steps and a custom interior with rosewood floor cabinets and more.

January 29, 2021

1978 Peterbilt 352 cabover preserved

The rig is the personal power unit of Toledo, Ohio-based Fred Bowerman, purchased from Mississippi-based Bouie River Transport within the last decade as something of a preservation project in honor of Bowerman's father's passing decades ago.

January 28, 2021

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Emanuel Haueis' 2019 International LoneStar

He uses the rig to haul mostly frac sand and grain in B-train hopper bottoms in northern and western Canada and the northwestern U.S. In the summer of 2020, he also got into hauling asphalt emulsion in insulated B-train tankers from Alberta to the Yukon.

January 26, 2021

Meet the driver of Evel Knievel's former haul rig

This latest in Overdrive's 60th anniversary series takes a look at one intersection of the business magazine and U.S. popular culture with the 1973 story on one of the most famous people on the planet at the time, the daredevil and sometime truck driver.

January 25, 2021

Then-trucker Mike Draper behind the wheel of Evel Knievel's Mack haul rig in the 1970s.

Overdrive Radio

Regulated rates, wildcatting, deregulation: A brief history of U.S. trucking

A special tour through the rise of the owner-operator in exempt agricultural markets from the 1930s, to wildcatting later, deregulation later still -- and this cabover monument to one owner's heritage.

January 22, 2021

The 1978 Peterbilt 352 was a model who in earlier years had been driven by Bowerman's father, who passed several years earlier. This one, purchased from a prior owner in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, has origins in Illinois, Bowerman said, and is powered by a Cat 3406A run through a 15-speed transmission, 190-inch wheelbase.

Joe Karsten's 2015 Peterbilt 389

He hauls steel out of Chicago west toward Denver with his 1999 East trailer. Karsten has added double-hump fenders with blind mount brackets from I-29 Custom Truck Parts, a rear inverted light bar from Iowa Customs, and more.

January 22, 2021

Danny Foss' 2019 Peterbilt 389

The rig is powered by a 510-hp Paccar with an 18-speed Eaton. Foss, the owner of Payless Trucking, runs the truck from Bonne Bay to Boston and back.

January 19, 2021

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Will Amazon and other businesses that have enjoyed a pandemic boost see it fade much as the economy reopens?

Expect pandemic-boosted retail freight to stay strong, analyst says

Businesses that have benefited from the pandemic will likely stay strong even as services compete for consumers' discretionary spending.

Live Q&A: Exploring hurdles and criticisms of DOT's DataQs

Cb Mic In Truck Red Dash

Use the CB -- it works

Having a DataQs review panel for appeals that includes one or more trucking representatives “would definitely make a difference” in the system’s overall fairness, said Danny Schnautz, a vice president with Clark Freight Lines.

Mounting efforts to improve DataQs appeals fairness

Latest Gear Guide loaded with helpful trucking tips for the year ahead

Latest Gear Guide loaded with helpful trucking tips for the year ahead

The long tail of the CB's social utility

More episodes »

The Business Manual for Owner-Operators

Overdrive editors and ATBS present the industry’s best manual for prospective and committed owner-operators. You’ll find exceptional depth on many issues in the 2021 edition of Partners in Business.

Partners in Business Issue Cover