Phoenix, Arizona-based Pickett Custom Trucks owner Rod Pickett has been in the truck customization business for 25-plus years, mostly helping truck owners build working trucks that showcase the pride in the work they do.
As noted in a previous feature from the 2026 Mid-America Trucking Show about the “Alfalfa Cruiser” build, Rod and his brother, Kevin, were well-known in purely-for-show trucks in the early 2000s, when the shop was based in Washington state. The Picketts partnered with Bryan Martin and his team at 4 State Trucks in Joplin, Missouri, for seasons 1-3 of the hit reality TV series Trick My Truck.
Rod PickettVideo and photos by Lawson Rudisill
[Related: 'Alfalfa Cruiser': Pickett Custom Trucks' first show truck in two decades]
Pickett built the rig for Dexter, New Mexico-based Jason Flores, owner of 28-truck Dan Dee Dairy and the “Alfalfa Cruiser" show rig. At the time MATS, while this red 2024 389 had yet to work a load, it was set to replace a “twin” 389 that Flores put nearly a million miles on over the last five years -- same striping pattern, same colors.
Nearly all the custom touches on the unit were made by Pickett himself or bought from 12 Ga. Customs and some other shops.
Up near the front end, custom adds include Peterbilt 379-style headlights, a bolt-less bumper, air-ride front end, air cleaner lights, visor lights, stainless wiper arms, Dynaflex stacks, cab and sleeper panels, battery box covers and mirror lights.
The truck’s interior features some “simple” upgrades, Pickett said, including painted door panels, headliner pieces and dash, some stainless and chrome pieces, Rockwood sill plates, and Spare Time Fab billet pedals.
“Just simple, clean, but nothing too much, just so it looks good,” Pickett said.
Behind the cab, he added Hogebuilt fenders and a painted deck plate.
Because the truck will be used to haul hay along the West Coast, it’s outfitted with PT Welding flatbed doubles painted to match the truck.
“Just a real clean, cool work truck,” Pickett said. “Nothing crazy, but enough” that the rig “stands out.
"It’s not normal.”
No, it's most certainly not.
[Related: Trucking family's 1978 Peterbilt 352M brought home, resurrected]
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Rod Pickett: All right. I'm Rod Pickett from Phoenix, Arizona. I own Pickett Custom Trucks. One behind me here is a 389 built for Dan Dee Dairy, two-axle. PT trailers out of California built the trailers.
All right, so the red truck, we put 379 headlights on it. We capped the ends, put our logo on there. That's kind of what we've been doing that for 25 years. Kind of one of our signature deals. Bolt-less bumper. It's been body-dropped two inches. Air ride front end, our deal. It's got our billet front hubs on it, air cleaner lights, glass stuff, 12 Gauge drop arms, visor lights.
GGE stainless wiper arms on it, Dynaflex stacks, cab and sleeper panels, we make. Battery box covers, we make. Some stuff we buy from 12 Gauge and other shops too, but a lot of stuff we make.
Deck plates, light bars, we make all that stuff. Cab and sleeper panels, like I said. Mirror lights, we're big on those. Been doing those for years. That's kind of one of our things. Hogebuilt fenders all the way around. Just a real clean, cool work truck. Nothing crazy, but enough you can, you know, stands out. It's not normal.
You know, we just did some simple stuff. Nothing crazy. Just we painted, you know, we make the door panels out, make the headliner pieces and stuff like that, and we paint, you know, paint some of the factory panels.
A few stainless pieces, chrome stuff. You got some Rockwood sill plates in it, some Spare Time billet pedals, chrome shifter. Just just simple, clean, but nothing too much, just so it looks good.
Overdrive: These trailers, that trailer combo is kind of a West Coast thing, right? Like, could you explain that a little for me, for people that don't know?
Rod Pickett: Yeah. So it's set of doubles, those two trailers. So it's a West Coast thing and you know, so you can all hay there. Well you can haul whatever you want on them, but these are strictly hay pretty much. But there you can get around easy with them being two trailers. So if it's tight, you can get around, you know, they don't cheat much. You can track around and you can haul two different products on the same, you know, on the same load, stuff like that. But yeah, that's a big West Coast thing, the doubles for hauling the hay.
It's actually a new truck. Hasn't gone to work yet, but the driver's here, he has a twin to it. He's got just under a million miles on that one. So he's going to get this new one here, going to retire -- well not going to retire, somebody else will get the other one, and he'll step into the new one.
But it's pretty much a twin to this one. But it's just five years old. So, we painted the other one the same as this one. Same stripes, same color combo and everything. So it's kind of the twin, but just a new version of it.
