Brandon Scates learned the trucking business the hard way early in his career, but more than 27 years after early busines missteps, he’s still trucking strong in the 2024 Kenworth W900 featured in the video above.
The rig boasts plenty added stainless parts and other touches that made it stand out among others on display at the 2025 Guilty By Association Truck Show in Joplin, Missouri. The unit is powered by a 565-hp Cummins with an 18-speed, “and it’s just a really great truck,” Scates said. He ordered it from the factory with the Legendary Red paint with dark cherry effect and white stripes.
The Parsons, Tennessee-based owner-operator bought his first truck in 1998, becoming an owner-operator right off the bat, prior to any OTR experience in company equipment. He wasn’t totally new to the business, though.
Brandon Scates
Running leased to Landstar Ranger early in his owner-operator career, Scates said he “did everything about as wrong as you can do it when I got started. I was really stubborn when I was young, and I wanted to do things my way. But, I was pretty fast to learn” and take advice from his dad and some older friends who had more experience in business.
“I kept seeing the way I was going was the hard way,” he added. “I just eventually started taking some tips and watching the older guys, and kind of tried to mimic what they were doing that was working for them.”
Scates said it took “just a lot of pure determination” to get “through to a better spot” in his career.
After eight years leased, he struck out on his own in 2006 with authority as James B. Scates Trucking for the same reason many owners make that leap -- “I like to be in control of what I’m doing,” he said. “I like it from start to finish. I like to book the load, see where the load’s going. I just like to be involved in every aspect of what the truck is doing.”
In 2015, Scates found a dedicated customer he’s been working with ever since, hauling wood products on his flatbed out of west Tennessee into bordering states. Finding that dedicated customer “has been the biggest blessing I’ve had since I’ve been trucking,” he said. “To be able to hold onto this account -- sure, I’ve made some more money at different times on some stuff -- but this steady money week in and week out doing the same thing has been a blessing to me and my family.”
It's enabled Scates to trade equipment on a three-year cycle, buying a new truck every 400,000 miles or so. He said he’s found with today’s trucks, “the first 500,000 miles of a truck’s kind of a sweet spot” and they’re “more or less trouble free” up until that point.
He trades them before they get there.
[Related: Guilty by Association Truck Show rolls into Joplin]
His latest unit is the 2024 Kenworth W900 featured in the video. He worked with salesman Larry Lawhead at MHC Kenworth in Joplin, Missouri, to build out and spec the truck for his needs.
Once he took possession of it, he took it to Southerland Bros. Air & Fab in Owensville, Missouri, who added plenty custom touches. The power plant's been “worry-free for the last 227,000 miles” behind it at the time of the Guilty By Association Truck Show in Joplin in September.
At Southerland Bros., the team added the visor and cab lights, chopped the screens in the air cleaners, put an air ride kit on the front end, added panels under the doors and sleeper.
12 Ga. Customs did all the stainless work and shipped it to Southerland Bros. for install -- including the deck plate and fenders.
Scates commended Southerland's work, noting he doesn’t have “anything but good things to say about the work they done for me.”
The interior was done by Two Bee’s Upholstery, adding the Seattle Package interior and added extra panels inside the rig.
Scates' typical trade cycle might have him trading in a year, year and a half more time with the 2024 KW, he said in September. But with Kenworth last year announcing the sunsetting the W900 model, he guessed at that time he “might have to shortchange this truck just a little bit” to get one of the last W9s before they’re gone -- “whether it be a Legacy model or just a regular W9.”
[Related: OTR to CDL school owner: A.J. Frankie and the 'School Daze' '92 T600]
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Brandon Scates: My name is Brandon Scates. I'm based out of Parsons, Tennessee. The name of my trucking company is James B. Scates Trucking. My dad was a trucker and my granddad done some trucking, so kind of in my blood.
I bought my first truck in 1998. I jumped straight in with both feet. I did everything about as wrong as you can do it when I got started.
This truck is a '24 model Kenworth. I was fortunate enough to have a hand in getting this truck ordered and getting it built. They built it here at MHC in Joplin. Larry Lawhead was the salesman that put the truck together for me. We got it in from Washington, and we carried it over to Southerland Bros. Air & Fab. Daniel and Adam done a really great job of listening to the details and putting the truck together like I imagined.
It's got a 565 Cummins, an 18 speed. I was able to air ride in front of this one and do a few things that I haven't done in the past. And, it's just been a really good truck.
Everything you see on this truck, the Legendary Red, the dark cherry effect and the white, you know, that was all done out in Washington at the plant. And Southerland Brothers did all the, did the visor. You know, I ordered it with no visor. You know, they put cab lights on it; they chopped my screens in the air cleaners. They put their air ride kit on the front end. They put the panels under the door and under the sleeper.
12 Ga. did all the stainless work and had it shipped down. Of course, they did the deck plate and, on the rear of the tractor, they did a full frame cover and welded it all in and re-sprayed it, hung the fenders.
You know, they done a ton of work to this truck. You know, they just did a great job. I ain't got anything but good things to say about the work that they done for me.
The inside of it, Travis, out at Two Bee's Upholstery in Seattle, they put the Seattle package on it inside; did a full button change, and added all the extra panels inside the truck.
