The mood among truck owner participants in Peterbilt's sixth-ever, invite-only Pride & Class parade event and truck show in Denton, Texas, this past October might have been marred by the freight demand situation. As Texas-based Massey Motor Freight fleet owner and custom-truck builder Troy Massey put it at the time, "If you're not struggling in trucking, you better be real quiet about it."
Certainly don’t tell anyone just how you're achieving your success, Massey went on from there to say. If you do, chances are they’ll be coming for your business soon enough.
Yet at the Pride & Class event, the mood was decidedly upbeat in spite of it all -- that goes for Massey, too. "This is a pretty prestigious event" for Peterbilt owners and enthusiasts, he said, and represented his first invite to it. "I'm pretty excited."
Troy Massey was polishing up this beauty ahead of the parade when I found him out at the Paccar Leasing facility nearby to Peterbilt's Denton assembly plant that day in October. It's a 2022 Peterbilt 389 the Massey team christened Dustn' the Wind in honor of Rush Peterbilt salesman Dustin DuPree, who passed during the COVID pandemic, Massey said.
On the floor in-cab, the "highway to heaven," Massey said, is depicted, covered with a hard clearcoat and shown here from the sleeper in view between the seats.
Most of the custom work put into the build was in the engine bay, as Troy Massey details in the podcast (listen via the video up top or podcast embed below).
Overdrive Radio's sponsor is Howes, longtime provider of fuel treatments like its Howes Diesel Treat anti-gel and Lifeline rescue treatment to get you through the coldest temps, likewise its all-weather Diesel Defender, among other products.
Owner Jarrett Landry spent three years bringing this former daycab into its current state -- it will function as a livestock-show toter for his family as his kids get further into that particular pastime. It's one he and his wife, Jessica, both have in their pasts.
Here, evidence of just why Landry calls the single-drive-axle Pete an "oversize dually." Two custom seats sit in the sleeper behind the driver and passenger seats for the kids. Landry grew up riding on his owner-operator father's rig's mattress. That's comfortable, he said, but only to a point. For what he and the family will use this truck, the seats ought to keep things as comfortable for the kids as possible.
Where'd Landry come up with the unique hood striping pattern shown here on the 379? Find out in the podcast.
Owner Massey’s latest custom creation completes the run through near 40 years of living lineage with the 2022 model Dustn' the Wind, though Pete's new 589 was at least represented by an early production model in the Pride & Class parade. Time will tell what truck owner-operators do with that one. Might we get an indication of that at the Mid-America Trucking Show fast approaching? Massey is among owners competing in a rebooted special part of the PKY memorial custom truck show at MATS -- the Big Rig Build-Off. Other competitors there include 2023 Overdrive's Small Fleet Champ finalist Adam Johnson of Johnson Hill Customs and K&D Transport, Dustin Dickerson and the Davis Bros. of Indiana. Keep tuned on that front.
[Related: Survival strategies, tactics to thrive: Owner-op biz in spotlight at MATS]
For now, settle in with more detail on three iconic Peterbilt models, a tribute, of a fashion, to all that’s come before, and all that remains well-entrenched in the present through the work of these owners.
Stay tuned for video looks at both Landry's and Massey's rigs, and catch Greg Crispell's pristine 1984 359 in the video below.
