Warren Wiseman, driver for Eric Turner’s Atlanta-based Turner Transport small fleet, putting the finishing touches this morning on Turner’s 2015 Peterbilt glider, showing with an open car haul trailer.Dozens of bobtail and combo rigs battled several rounds of inclement weather, including repeated rain and some thunderheads, late yesterday in preparation for the opening of Overdrive‘s Pride & Polish event in Crossville, Tenn., the last stop before the national championship in Dallas.
Four Best of Show winners from this event at Fitzgerald Glider Kits sales and service location will join those already qualified for the championships for the final stand in Dallas. Take a look through several views on some of the show’s many owner-operator competitors in the gallery below. (A beautiful day so far, it’s turned out.)
If you’re in the Crossville area or passing through on I-40 (Plateau Road exit east of Crossville proper), festivities tonight include a performance by Dandridge, Tenn.-based trucker-singer-songwriter Tony Justice at 8 p.m., fireworks and a light show with all the trucks on hand.
The view down the center line of trucks on the lot out front early this morning, just prior to rags down.
Eric Turner's 2015 Peterbilt glider, powered by a Series 60 Detroit, one of four gliders built by Fitzgerald in his 7-truck car hauling fleet. It's the first show for the Turner family, and Eric's working on a new glider that will pair a new Kenworth Icon 900 with a rebuilt Caterpillar engine.
Eric Turner
Eric Turner talks to the judges earlier today.
Independent owner-operator J.D. Terry, of Crossville, Tenn., hauls flatbed freight with a variety of direct customers in the area, utilizing other contacts in Virginia and North Carolina for the return, a few brokers as well. This 1995 Kenworth W900L he bought several years back from an owner-operator in Jackson, Tenn. The "driveway dream" has been customized just there -- by Terry himself.
Independent owner-operator J.D. Terry
View from the back of Terry's Reitnouer flatbed
Fleenor Bros.' Kyle Cousins is showing this Cummins-powered 2008 Kenworth W900 -- returned to the show circuit after a few years' hiatus and with a major facelift, particularly in the interior. (The stainless Great Dane van he's showing with he credits Chance 2 Transport's Rod Miller with inspiring -- regular readers may well recall Miller's somewhat similarly outfitted trailer from last year's Crossville show.)
One view of the interior of the Fleenor rig, back of the sleeper.
Kyle Cousins
View of the Fleenor Bros. rig from the drives.
Wisconsin-based Dawes Contract Carriage is showing this aerodynamic Kenworth, one of a few aero trucks on the lot.
Overdrive contributing writer Wendy Parker (left) with Ashley Feldkamp at the Diesel Life booth.
