Father-son duo Keith and Zach Bauer, owners of Z&K Bauer Transport out of Felton, Pennsylvania, run 23 trucks primarily hauling milk and other food-grade products. The elder Bauer, Keith, has been in the milk-hauling business for 47 years and said it’s a nonstop operation -- “Nights, holidays, weekends, snowstorms. Cows produce every day,” he said. “They don't say 'I'm not going to make no product tomorrow to haul because it's going to be bad weather.'”
Not only is the time investment demanding, the nature of the hauling itself can be dangerous when it comes to potential rollovers. The product “is in there slopping around, moving everywhere,” Keith said. “The rollover rate on this stuff is horrible.”
Unlike many other commodities that move in bulk liquid tanks, food-grade tanks don’t have baffles, “so you have 46 feet for that liquid to get moving back and forth and side to side," Zach said, "and so it kind of demands some of the best people to do it safely.”
[Related: Liquid-bulk tanker: At once rare and common challenges for owner-ops come with rewards]
Because the Bauers haul unprocessed milk from farms and dairies, they qualify for an agricultural exemption that allows them to haul up to 96,000 pounds. Their trucks and trailers are equipped with pusher axles to handle the additional weight.
As noted, Keith has been hauling milk for 47 years.
He pulls today in this rebuilt 1996 Kenworth W900L.Photos and video by Lawson Rudisill
When Zach first got into the business, he ventured out on his own, but as father and son's two companies grew, they combined it all to launch Z&K Bauer Transport together.
Overdrive Video Editor Lawson Rudisill caught up with the Bauers at the Large Cars & Guitars truck show and music festival, put on by longtime trucker-songwriter Tony Justice. The pair were showing off Keith’s rebuilt 1996 Kenworth W900L retirement project, likewise Zach’s 1.3-million-mile 2008 Peterbilt 389, which has been reworked with a retro look.
Keith bought the W9 as a day cab, though it'd been a sleeper with the original build. The Bauers spent about two years at work on the unit, and it continues to run six days a week today. “We hunted all over for that sleeper, and I actually found it out in California,” Zach said. “A friend of ours had brought it back on his reefer trailer.”
The goal was to take the truck back to its original configuration with a “few little modern updates,” Zach noted. The Cat engine's modified to put out about 60% more power than factory, they added.
The Bauers worked with Horst Signs out of Denver, Pennsylvania, for the striping -- “Between their ideas and ours, we kind of came up with the stripe,” Zach said, “and we did continue it on the trailer to match through.”
The trailer paired with the W9 is an 8,000-gallon Tremcar and is all “self-contained,” Keith said, with its own power generation for when they pick milk up from Amish farms.
The Jones Performance hood features double round headlights and an A-model style. Randy Martin with Spare Time Fab did the interior with button-tuck leather.
Zach’s Cummins-powered 2008 389 features an 18-speed and 3.90 rears. Like his father’s truck, it’s also turned up “to safely and efficiently handle 96,000 pounds every day and still get good fuel mileage,” he said, noting that he gets about 6.5 mpg in it.
As a fan of the classic Peterbilt 359 model, Zach has given his 389 as much of that style as he can with the 359-style headlights, an old-school bug shield made by Dane Nelson, glass lens lights all around and more.
Spare Time Fab did his interior, as well, with buckskin button-tuck and a 359-style steering wheel, among other touches.
Zach's trailer holds up to 8,500 gallons, also manufacturerd by Tremcar, and features 107 extra lights on it. Unlike his father’s tanker, he didn’t continue the truck’s striping on his.
Instead, Zach's Tremcar display this mural on the back with cows in a field “for something a little different,” he said.
The Bauers are big on lights, as they do most of their hauling at night.
Zach joked that if people ask why they have so many lights, “you just say we’re afraid of the dark, you got to light it up.”
[Related: Custom 2005 Peterbilt 379 a trucker's surprise, with intricate hand-pinstriping]
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Keith Bauer: I've been hauling milk for 47 years now. It's a demanding thing. Nights, holidays, weekends, snow storms. Cows produce every day. They don't say I'm not going to make no product tomorrow to haul because it's going to be bad weather.
Keith Bauer: Keith Bauer
Zach Bauer: Zach Bauer
Keith Bauer: And we're with Z and K Bauer transport out of Felton, Pennsylvania.
Zach Bauer: Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York mostly where we run.
Keith Bauer: We're in the milk hauling business. Majority of our work is milk hauling. We do a little bit of RGN work.
Zach Bauer: And we do hire quite a bit of olive oil that goes into the butter from the milk that we all into the plant. So kind of all aspects of food were involved in.
Keith Bauer: The rollover rate on this stuff is horrible. It's in there slopping around, moving everywhere.
Zach Bauer: With food grade, we're not allowed to have baffles, you know, like like fuel or chemicals or anything like that. So, you have 46 feet for that liquid to get moving back and forth and side to side. And so you kind of demand some of the best people to do it.
Well, we run under the ag exemption because it's it's raw milk. It's an unprocessed dairy product. I mean we can run in any weather conditions, snow. I mean, it doesn't matter. They let us run. We do have to carry tire chains with us all the time. They do give us a little bit of grace and we can run 96,000 on our ag permit with six axles. That's why we have, both of these trucks back here have the pusher axle so we can run our 96,000.
Keith Bauer: Mine's in 1996 W900L Kenworth has been restored. I bought it as a day cab. In it's day when it was originally built, it was a sleeper truck.
Zach Bauer: We hunted all over for that sleeper, and I actually found it out in California. A friend of ours had brought it back on his reefer trailer.
Most of it's pretty much put all back to original. There's a few little modern updates we've done do it, but we tried to stay, you know, for the time it was built.
Keith Bauer: That motor's been all rebuilt, and power-wise it's probably 60% more than it was in its factory state, just under a lot of the new stuff you can do now. Caterpillar engines, what's in that one.
Zach Bauer: The striping was kind of our own spin. We use a company out of Denver, PA called Horst Signs. In between, you know, their their ideas and ours, we kind of came up with the stripe, and we did continue it on the trailer to match through.
And other than that, it is an aftermarket hood. That's a Jones Performance hood. And it's actually to mock after the old A-models. It has, you know, the double round headlights. And then if you look on top of the hood, where the newer W9s have kind of a straight crown in the hood, that one has a real wide Y, as they would call it, I guess, like the old, old Kenworths have.
Keith Bauer: That's a 2023 Tremcar trailer, 8,000 gallon. And, it's all self-contained unit. It has its own generating power and all that. So, we haul a lot of milk off of Amish farms for there's no electricity. Tremcar's built in Canada. They're actually out of Canada.
Zach Bauer: They're well-built trailers. We have about 15 of them now. We've had pretty good luck.
Keith Bauer: We spent about two years putting it back together. Some people do funny things for retirement. Well, that's my retirement hobby right there. And that truck runs six days a week now all the time. So yeah, it's done a good job. Really has.
Zach Bauer: That's a 2008 389 glider. It's a Cummins engine in it. 18-speed transmission, 3.90 rears. It's the original paint. As you can see, it's starting to peel on the hood and the bunk, but there's 1.3 million miles on it. So I think the paint did a pretty good job. And it's been in and out of farms, and it runs heavy every day of its life. So, it's been a good truck.
We've had quite a bit of work done to the engine and transmission just to safely and efficiently handle, you know, 96,000 pounds every day. The right parts and the right tuning, at 96,000 pounds, I still can get about six and a half mile a gallon. So it's it's pretty impressive.
Our friend Randy at Spare Time, he's done the whole interior of that in like a buckskin button-tuck interior. It has an old 359-style steering wheel. And then, you know, a few little minor things here and there. But yeah, other than that, it's pretty much original.
I just kind of tried to take an old spin on it. Was always a big fan of the 359s. My grandfather had one he'd bought new and that was kind of my take on it. We removed the factory headlights and replaced with the 359 style, and a friend of mine from California makes those bug shields there behind the swan. Dane Nelson. And he has kind of the same outlook we do for old trucks. You know, I'm trying to put an old spin on a new truck. They're certainly not making old trucks anymore.
That's a 2024 Tremcar. That's 8,500 gallons. Pretty much the same as my father's. It's all self-contained. We didn't do a stripe on this one. We actually did a mural on the back of some cows in a field. Something a little different.
When we had it built from Tremcar, they added, it has a 107 extra lights on it over what DOT requires. And I mean, I prefer, and so as my father, we try to run all at night. That's the kind of our big thing for lighting them up because they're always out in the dark. So if anybody asks, you just say, we're afraid of the dark, so you got to light it up.
