Cameron Bagley hasn't done too much work on his 1999 Peterbilt 379 since buying it last year out of Pennsylvania, but at 23 years old, the Newport, Maine-based owner-operator's big achievement here is continuing a proud family legacy in trucking.
Bagley showed his 379 at the Gear Jammer Magazine Truck Show at the New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire, in late July and showed Overdrive around the rig.
"I've done a few little things to it to make it my own," said Bagley. "I put a deck plate on it, but really that's pretty much it. I bought it just how it was."
A ELD-exempt Cat runs the rig, which features an 18-speed transmission and 3.36 rear ends. It sits on the original suspension, besides a "2010 cutoff" with "disc brakes in the rear like a newer truck would."
[Related: Gear Jammer Magazine Truck Show: Winners, drag racing tips and tricks, history]
There's plenty to like on the rig, both inside and out.
With a truck and engine older than the driver himself, what made Bagley want a 379?
"That’s what I grew up around, my dad always had trucks," he said. "That’s all we had growing up, nothing but 379s."
Bagley's father, Travis, who passed in 2022, started T & A Trucking with his wife Alana. Son Cameron was eager to follow in his footsteps.
"I got my CDL at 17," he said. "I went OTR at 21 as soon as I could."
That kind of over-achiever attitude might run in the family.
Bagely's 379 shines bright at Gear Jammer's "Lights on For Autism" show.
"Right now me and my mom run the place here," he said. "I run the truck and she runs our office and shop here. Soon we hope my sister Ciara," just 20, "can join us." She has her CDL, too.
With mostly direct customers and a few load board hauls, he's running reefer freight in the winter up and down the East Coast and a few flatbed loads in the summer, he said. With just two years OTR, he said he hasn't really gotten out West yet, but one gets the sense he's got a whole lot of road ahead of him.
"We’re just small-town people but have taken on a lot for our age," he said. For now he's carrying on his father's legacy, or "trying to anyways," he joked.
He's doing it in style, too, with the 379, its plush interior, and plenty of shiny chrome.
[Related: 'Black Widow' '86 GMC General: 'Poor man's Peterbilt' for owner]
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