Lois Yoder Trucking got its start in 2013 when Benjamin Yoder and his father, Jerry, started the business after Jerry had spent 40 years out on the road behind the wheel.
He was ready to retire as Benjamin was just getting started, so the pair got a truck and were running it all together as a one-truck operation. A friend of Benjamin’s called him one day “and wanted to know if we would get a truck for him to start driving, and that’s what we did.” Next they knew, they were to 20 trucks, where the fleet sits today.
The Hicksville, Ohio-based Yoders haul mostly steel coils to and through points in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. One of the company's recent-years additions is the custom 2013 Peterbilt 389 featured in the video at the top, shot at the 2025 Shell Rotella SuperRigs working truck show at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The truck's nickname, "Bad Influence," was bestowed upon the unit by its builders, A&A Stainless Steel. The 2013 389 is coupled with a 2025 Mac conestoga.
[Related: Kenny Ziglar's 'Scrapin' By' 2007 Peterbilt 379 wins top honors at SuperRigs]
The Yoders bought it from A&A Stainless Steel in Hialeah, Florida, the shop that built the custom unit. They worked it the first full year they had it in 2024. When winter rolled around, they pulled the truck off the road and tore it down to fix it up for the 2025 truck show season. The work put in proved to be worth the effort at SuperRigs, as the truck picked up a second-place trophy in the Tractor/Trailer Division. It also earned a Best Engine nod at the Gear Jammer Magazine Truck Show in July for the dressed-up 550-hp Caterpillar under the hood.
The 389 “was in pretty fair condition” when they bought it, said Benjamin Yoder, adding that “it looked similar” to how it did at the truck show in late May. After working it for most of a year, though, it needed some touch-up work.
The 2025 Mac conestoga is painted to match the truck with the frame painted the same bright yellow.
The Yoder team pulled the Cat engine out and repainted it, and the fleet’s painter, Craig, “went across all the paint on the truck,” Yoder said. “We wet sanded everything down. It had quite a bit of orange peel and stuff in it we wanted to get out."
The Cat C15 is coupled with an 18-speed transmission. The bright yellow paint and stainless work on the engine stand out against the dark gray of most of the rig.
A&A Stainless came up with the paint scheme, which is Chrysler Gray with a highlighter yellow frame and accents. “We’ve had a lot of compliments on it,” Yoder said.
Among other custom touches: custom stacks, stainless on the engine, the paint work.
Inside the rig, the dash, steering wheel and more are highlighter yellow to match the accents on the rig.
Yoder said he’s planning on showing the truck through the rest of the 2025 season, and putting it back to work. As of SuperRigs in May, the truck had put just more than 1.4 million miles behind it.
Green lights all around make the truck truly stand out at night.
[Related: Harlan Martin and 'Barney,' the purple 2023 Pete 389 with custom air ride, more mods]
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Benjamin Yoder: This truck here, we got down in Miami, Florida. We bought from a gentleman down there, A&A Stainless were the ones that built it. They did all the custom work, all the stainless work on it. The stacks are custom, all the motor work, the custom stainless on the motor, all of that was done by them.
It's got an 18 speed in it and it's got a 550 Cat. A Paccar was originally in it. They pulled that out and put a Cat in it.
My name is Benjamin Yoder. We're based out of Hicksville, Ohio. We haul steel coils, run mostly Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, do a lot of stuff for Steel Dynamics and Worthington Industries. A lot of our stuff runs down South and then we're usually getting loads and whatnot coming back up north.
My dad drove truck for a little over 40 years and he actually wanted to retire. He didn't want nothing to do with it no more. And then we got one truck, and him and I were working that, and it just kind of started from that. I had a buddy call me and wanted to know if we would get a truck for him to start driving, and that's what we did. And before you know it, you got 20 trucks sitting in the driveway.
We have a mix of 379s and 389s, and we got one 579 we run as well. That's kind of our spare truck, but we run all Peterbilts, all flattop and standups.
It was in pretty fair condition when we bought it. It looked similar like this, and then we worked it all last year when we bought it. And then this past winter we tore everything down. We pulled the motor out, repainted the motor, went across the frame.
My paint guy, Craig, he went across all the paint on the truck and we wet sanded everything down. Had quite a bit of orange peel and stuff in it we wanted to get out and cleaned all that up and got it ready for MATS this year. They call it the, I think a Hellcat Gray or a Chrysler Gray, maybe that's what it was. Yep. A&A Stainless were the ones that painted that. So that was just a paint scheme that they come up with and we really liked it. We figured if we paint the trailer that way, it just sets the whole truck off by doing that. And we've had a lot of compliments on it.
They put a marine flooring in on the floor. They went across like the dash and all that's been painted, different switches and so forth. We're showing it this year going to a few shows that we wanted to do. Our last one will probably be up at Bob Conrad's show in New Hampshire. We're going to go up there to that one, and then after that she'll be going to work.
We did the best we could for our first show truck and just wanted to take it out and let people see it, see what they think. I had so many people there, they're like, when you do your first show, they're like, you're going to get hooked. I'm just telling you. And it is just the people. There been some amazing people that we've come across and just amazing guys.
