Arkansas-based Jerry Whittmore got into the timber business in 1993, starting Jerry Whittmore Timber as a family operation.
He had been driving trucks for about two years at that point. His father was a driver with National Carriers, and in 1991, Jerry got his start in trucking with National Carriers, as well. He still owns his first truck -- a 1991 Peterbilt 379 that he bought new, later sold and was able to find again, as you can read about here.
Jerry Whittmore
Whittmore’s son found and bought the truck a few years ago, and Jerry bought it from his son in 2023 and immediately got to work on restoring it. “I bought it on a Friday, and I started on a Monday” to restore it, he said.
The rig has 1.4 million miles behind it, but after a restoration that took a little less than a year, “it just sits in the shop and collects dust,” except when he pulls it out for an event like the 2025 Guilty By Association Truck Show, where Overdrive caught up with it.
Whittmore had the paint work done at Bruckner’s Truck & Equipment in Springdale, Arkansas. He had always wanted a silver truck, but he’s become known for always having blue equipment.
He kept silver as the primary color, but to incorporate blue, he swapped out the standard polished aluminum front fenders on the 379X model for painted blue fenders.
As for the rebuild itself, Whittmore said he and his sons basically went at it like a shop would -- “we tore it all apart and scattered parts … and started ordering parts. And when it we got it all back, we just started putting parts on and it just come together.” Whittmore actually went to 4 State Trucks in Joplin and bought a model truck and built it first to see how he wanted to build the actual truck.
The rig features plenty of custom pieces, inside and out. One notable customization is the panel lights under the cab and sleeper.
They’re double stacked and staggered, and as far as Whittmore knows, “there’s not another set in the country” like them.
In building the unit, Whittmore’s goal was to get as much “chicken lights and chrome” on it as possible. “Chicken lights and chrome -- that’s what it used to be about,” he said. “It ain’t that way no more, but that’s what it used to be.”
He also gutted the interior, took out the original insulation and started from scratch with a new interior kit.
The interior features the same silver and blue color scheme as the rig's exterior.
He also incorporated his timber business into the interior with sawblades on the floor at the door thresholds.
The sawblades were originally key hangers that Whittmore shaved the hooks off of and painted to match the truck.
The rig features a twin-turbo Caterpillar engine with an 18-speed and 3.55 rears.
Whittmore calls the build “a labor of love.” All that hard work certainly paid off.
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Jerry Whittmore: It's a 2005 379X. My son bought it and I bought it off of him and we decided to restore it. And I restored it in less than a year. It's got 1.4 million miles on it. Jerry Whitmore based out of Huntsville, Arkansas or Springdale, Arkansas. And our business is we're in the timber business. We haul logs, mulch and lumber, and that's all we haul for is our own self, or ourselves. Been in the business since 93 and me and the boys and the whole family, it's a family deal. Wife works in the office and it's just all about family. My dad drove for National Carriers and I originally started with National Carriers in 91 and I still have my original 91 model Peterbilt. I restored it back in 16, I think it was. And I still have it too. 2.6 million miles. I've always wanted a silver truck, but everybody knows me as a blue man.
So I had to put some blue in it somewhere. And that's reason it's got painted blue fenders and tanks. And we done a frame off on it. They painted it at Buckner's in Springdale, Arkansas. And me and the boys done most of the other work. And this is a laborer love. It's got a cat, twin turbo, 18 speed, 355 rears. It's just a good old truck. It just sits in the shop and collects dust except for deals like this. We just kind of like up here at Ford State hauler tear down and we tore it all apart and scattered parts. And I went looking for a place to paint it. Took some paint parts up there and just started ordering parts. And that paint guy down there talked, he does motorcycles and stuff. And he said, "Look, what do you think about this? " And I just fell in love with it.
And everybody, he painted me off a deal and we took it around and everybody said, "Boy, that's beautiful." And that's what we went with. When we got it all back together and we just started putting parts on and it just come together. But this truck here, you can tell these fenders or tanks and stuff look purple, but when the sun hits it, it's the bluest blue you ever see. It's a cobot blue with metal flake, the same metal flakes in the other part. But the lights on it and stuff, I kind of laid it out on paper what I wanted to do and I sent it off to a company and asked them if they could build this for me. And they built it. And far as I know, there's not another set in the country that's got the double rows and staggered like they are.
And of course, I like lots of lights and lots of chrome. Chicken lights and chrome. That's what it used to be about. It ain't that way no more, but that's what it used to be. And that's part of that. And these boys helped us design a lot of stuff on it and built a lot of stuff for it. They've got a big part in it. And like I said, it was just one of them deals that just kept it coming and just keep it throwing money. The lettering on it, it took us three months to come up with the lettering, the color, because the fender, the paint changes color so much. The letters, if you pick one color, it wouldn't match in with that. So we had to have a company to kind of put that color paint coat in and kind of design it to where it'd do the same on the boxes and stuff.
But it took three months to come up with the decals. Yeah. We're pretty proud of it. Me and the boys are pretty proud of it. And like I say, it's just a family deal. It's all about the grandkids. They love to ride in it. We gutted it inside and out, took all the old insulation in, and we put an interior kit in it and got the saw blade incorporated, tie it back to the sawmill deal. That actually is a deal you hang your keys on in your house. Had the little hooks on it and I ground them off and had it painted. Works good though. We run into a little issue on the floorboard. Wasn't nobody's fault. I bought one, had it painted and we went to put it in one night and we almost had it all in and we had a big gap.
They'd sent me the one for a 389. So I had to call and they sent me another one. They had to have it painted. And of course, the deal on that, that's a big job. I'd done painted the one that probably should have fitted at first. It was kind of more or less just a come along deal. I mean, I knew what I wanted to look like before I started it, but it kind of happened the spare of the moment deal, the truck come available and things just went one to the other. It's one of the last X ... It's supposed to be, I think the last 1379 built one of them. I get more controversy over painting offenders than anything because they're supposed to be aluminum. That's right. I mean supposed to be polished aluminum, but don't always get. They turned out good. Old truck runs good, drives good.
There's not a thing wrong with it. If it was, I'd fix it, but it's just a labor of love.
