Small fleet owner Chris Helton, headquartered in the heart of Southwest Virginia's coalfields, runs a fleet of about eight trucks hauling coal and coke in the region.
Helton's Topher Trucking family-run business has been in operation for 26-plus years. Helton's dad "had trucks all my life, and that's all we've ever known," he said at the 2026 Mid-America Trucking Show in March in Louisville, Kentucky.
Chris Helton
Helton at MATS showed out with one of the fleet's former workhorses turned show truck -- a 1998 International PayStar 5000 he pulled off the road a couple years ago and restored. The rig's outfitted with a 525-hp Cummins N14 backed by a 13-speed and features a 20,000-pound front axle and 80,000-pound rears. The coal-dumper body is a 2010 by R&S.
It's not the first true looker in the Topher Trucking fleet. A 2005 PayStar fixed up by Helton and his son, Landon, features a bright-yellow paint scheme. Catch a video look at that unit here.
[Related: 'Ol Yellar' 2005 International PayStar coal dumper, dressed out by father and son]
The older PayStar was rebuilt with Helton's niece in mind, who he said wanted a pink show truck to go along with Landon's yellow. The pink scheme serves the breast cancer awareness purpose, too, as members of Helton's family have battled with the disease -- "and it means a lot to a lot of people" that see the truck at truck shows, he said.
In addition to the pink paint scheme, Helton put a double bumper on the front end and had to search high and low for custom parts to fit the rig -- not exactly a common model for extensive mods.
Many of the custom pieces were made for an International 9400 and just had to be measured and cut to fit when necessary -- the RoadWorks visor and many of the interior panels, for example. "You have to do a lot of measuring and stuff to make sure it fits," he said.
The interior features a pink-painted dash to match, hardwood floors, and custom-made kick panels.
The truck's hard-working history and new color earned it the "Piggy Bank" nickname, emblazoned across the top of the dump body.
[Related: 'Mint Condition': 2010 Pete 389 built with old-school touch]
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Chris Helton: It’s a ‘98 PayStar 5000. We repainted it a couple of years ago, and we pulled it off the road and restored it and made it what it is today.
Overdrive: All right, if you'll start out, tell me your name, name your business and where you're based out of.
Chris Helton: When I'm Chris Helton, it'd be Topher Trucking out of Hurley, Virginia. It’s me and my brother. It's a family business.
Overdrive: OK, All right. How long have you been trucking?
Chris Helton: I've been trucking for 26 years.
Overdrive: OK. How'd you get into the business?
Chris Helton: My dad had trucks all my life. That's all we ever known.
Overdrive: Yeah. What kind of work do y'all do?
Chris Helton: We haul coal and coke for SunCoke Energy back in Oakwood.
Overdrive: How many trucks are you running into the business today?
Chris Helton: We was running 14 regularly, but now we're back down to eight.
Overdrive: That's a common story in trucking right now, trying to make everything work.
Chris Helton: Well, we're hoping it’ll pick back up, that’s the reason we haven’t sold nothing yet. We know what we got.
Overdrive: All right, well, tell me about this truck behind you.
Chris Helton: It’s a ‘98 PayStar 5000. It’s got a 2010 R&S dump body on it. Got 20,000 pound front axle and 80,000 pound rears. Got an N14 Cummins and a 13 speed.
Overdrive: You said you pulled it off the road a couple of years ago?
Chris Helton: Yeah, yeah. It's been, we repainted a couple of years ago and we pulled it off the road and just restored it and made it what it is today.
Overdrive: Yeah. Well, tell me about the work you did to it.
Chris Helton: We painted it, put hardwood floors in it, custom made the kick panels under the dash.
Chris Helton: It’s got a 9400 grille in it because obviously, you can’t buy nothing for a PayStar. We double-bumpered it, you know, a whole bunch of stuff.
Overdrive: Is the grille bar, is that something that would come on the PayStars or is that something you added?
Chris Helton: No. That's factory. Most of them come with that right there. We double bumpered it. Most of them, they come with a single bumper and we put two on it.
Overdrive: All right. And how many miles of truck have on it?
Chris Helton: It’s got, I believe this has got 210,000 miles on it. You know, in the coalfields we go by the hours instead of the miles. Most of the time, we just run around the circle real slow.
Overdrive: Yeah. You know any custom parts on it that were difficult to find? I know you said you had to go with a different kind of different grille and all that kind of stuff.
Chris Helton: Yeah. The most parts on the cab is actually ordered for a 9400. Like the sun visor, RoadWorks sun visor is for a 9400.
Overdrive: OK.
Chris Helton: And the pieces on the side of the doors and the everything, most of them were for a 9400. So it's difficult finding, you know, you have to do a lot of measuring and stuff to make sure it’ll fit. We put the RealWheels covers on the simulator on the wheels and stuff.
Overdrive: Y’all have done a great job with it. It's a beautiful truck.
Chris Helton: I thank you, sir.
Overdrive: What was the decision to go with the pink?
Chris Helton: Well, it started out my niece wanted a pink truck because my son's got a yellow show truck, and we went with the pink. And her grandmother has breast cancer. And my grandmother had breast cancer and she passed away. So that's the reason we put the breast cancer tag on the front of it for them.
Chris Helton: And it means lot to a lot of people, you know.
