Jared Nelson is the owner of 10-truck Jared Nelson Trucking out of Altamont, Illinois, hauling dry bulk and agricultural commodities in their area.
Nelson’s been in business as an owner-operator/small fleet since he started with one truck when he was just about two years out of high school going on 20 years ago. He’s been slowly building the business since, pulling primarily dump trailers and tankers.
A typical day for a Nelson Trucking driver is two rounds to St. Louis with mostly grain to be put on the Mississippi River and reloading fertilizer, rock, lime or another commodity to bring back toward home base.
“The river being that close to us, everything we have revolves around the river stuff,” Nelson said.
Most of the trucks in the fleet feature custom work to some degree, at least with pristine paint jobs done by his brother, Jeremy, who owns NCP Customs in Sidney, Illinois. Many of his units are older rigs he buys and builds back up, but the fleet’s newest and most extravagant truck is the 2022 Peterbilt 389 “Curb Appeal,” featured here in the video up top.
“For me, when I look for buys, I always try to find just a cheaper truck that’s clean, but I don’t really care if it’s been really wrecked or whatever,” he said. “I just always want one that’s decent to start with. So, I’d come across this one about three months before I actually bought it.”
The truck was in a salvage yard in Texas when he first saw it. His fleet was in the middle of busy season, and he couldn’t make the trip. A few months later when business had slowed, he saw it for sale again and jumped on it. Damage was slight from a prior wreck, and the unit was actually drivable from Texas back to Illinois. The bunk had taken most of the damage in the wreck.
Some photos of the truck before the work (damage to the bunk isn't really visible) and during the build process are shown here.
And the finished product shown here.
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Back at his brother’s shop, the 2022 389 project took on a life of its own, a full-on custom build front to rear, inside and out.
A little help from friends
NCP Customs is a dealer for Dickerson Custom Trucks, with whom the Nelsons worked close for many of the parts -- T-bars, deck plate, air ride system that lowered the truck considerably.
Once Jared and Jeremy Nelson got started, there was no turning back. “Along the way, there wasn’t anything that wasn’t unbolted and painted on it,” Jared Nelson said.
They pulled the cab off and the engine out, he added. “Once we got the cab off, I was like, ‘there ain’t much left to the motor, I mean, everything’s unhooked,’ so we yanked the motor out,” he said.
The rig is powered by a Cummins X15. The entire engine and engine bay have been painted to match the truck's theme.
The paint scheme seen on the outside of the truck extends to the underside of the hood, as well -- among a bevy of meticulous details.
The end result can be seen in the video, Jared Nelson detailing various custom additions starting up front. He got rid of factory 389 headlights and added dual round lights for more of an old-school look. Dickerson big-holed some Alcoa wheels.
He shaved down the breathers, added 8-inch Lincoln Chrome stacks with the big elbows, and swapped out the big fuel tanks for smaller, sliding them forward. Big tanks weren’t necessary for the work the truck will be doing for the fleet, primarily pulling tankers, he noted.
He got a new bunk from Nor-Cal Custom Trucks out in California to replace the one damaged in the wreck.
In addition to the T-bars and deck plate from Dickerson, Nelson also added Shift Fenders on the rear axles and smoothed out the rough finish of the fifth wheel.
“We got it laying like glass everywhere,” he said. “A lot more hand-sanding and grinding and body work stuff, but it’s some of those little things that turn out good.”
Nelson's particularly proud of the work on the interior. All of the diamond-stitch upholstery was done by nearby Gebhardt Enterprises.
The Nelsons then took the original dash and other interior plastic pieces, sanded them down smooth like the exterior and painted them to match.
They also added a mirrored ceiling insert with watermelon lights.
The 389 ”definitely blew our expectations once it all came together,” Nelson said. “We’re pretty happy with it, pretty proud of it.”
They should be. At the 2026 Mid-America Trucking Show, where the rig was competing in the PKY Truck Beauty Championship, it brought home three awards -- first place in Limited Mileage Bobtail, Paint; second in Limited Mileage, Bobtail with No Miles; and third in Limited Mileage, Bobtail, Lights.
All of the watermelon lights around the truck are Legendary Extremes from 4 State Trucks.
[Related: Heavy hauler's 'Heartbreaker' custom Peterbilt 589]
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Jared Nelson: We actually didn't even have to change the grille shell. That's still the factory one. This is a, Dickerson Custom did the did the cut out for us there. We did ditch the 389 headlights. I couldn't do them. So we went old-school dual rounds. Dickerson actually big-holed our wheels for us. So put all new Alcoas on Bridgestones. and he big-holed the wheels for us, you know, just to give it that cooler look.
You know, we chopped, we shaved the brackets or the straps for the breathers. You know, slam the, you know, cut the cut the cans down some, you know, 12 Ga. custom mirror brackets. You know, obviously we could go normal exhaust, so Lincoln chrome 8-inch pipes all the way. Big elbow, big, big T pipes.
You know the the inside, this is what people take for granted is all this plastic in these new trucks is what excited me because I knew we could paint it, but all the plastic is rough. So we smoothed everything out to where it looks like glass, you know, like the outside. So there were definitely a lot of hand sanding on a lot of dash pieces to get it like this, but it was kind of what excited us more than anything to do one. Fiberglass floor.
Overdrive: Diamond stitching. Was that factory or …?
Jared Nelson: No. Gebhardt Enterprises, actually a local shop in Illinois, did all the interior. So he did all the double stitch. You know, we'd seen kind of some cool designs and thought it'd give it a little extra.
Overdrive: Mirrored ceiling with the watermelons looks good.
Jared Nelson: Yeah, yeah, we was kind of back and forth on that. Once we set that up, there was like, I was it too much? But once we put it in there, I'm like, nah, it looks good. But all the exterior lighting, you see all the watermelons, they're all the new, Legendary Extremes from 4 State. They put off some pretty wicked light patterns at night, so we'll get to see them later.
You know, the bunk, we obviously, we even gutted it. Took all the panels off and kind of did a texture on them. It's got a painted floor in it. Removed all the, you know, the bracing and painted. So we've literally had everything stripped on it.
You know obviously put smaller tanks on, slid them forward, got rid of the other small tank.
Overdrive: I guess just the nature of the work, you don't need the big tanks?
Jared Nelson: No, no. Like I said, T-bars and the deck plate all come from Dickerson Customs. You know, we we also put the body drop on the cab and the bunk. Did come from Nor-Cal Customs. So, you know, all the shaved, all the bunk mounts. Them are all up underneath, you know, made our filler panel kind of clean, cleaned the back up. You know, the fifth wheel was something we knew we could gain on it. You know, these are usually a rough, a rough finish. So we took it off and we ground, and there's a lot of body work, you know, to smooth, smooth up the edges. We actually separated it made our own crossbar so we could put it on separate make it easier. But you know we got it laying like glass everywhere. So a lot more hand sanding and grinding and body work stuff. But it's some of that little things that, that turn out good.
Shift fenders on it. But yeah, it definitely blue our expectations once it all come together. We pretty happy with it. Pretty proud of it.
Overdrive: Any story behind the Curb Appeal nickname?
Jared Nelson: No, honestly, the other shop guy with us. I told him long ago when we started, I'm like, we gotta come up with a cool name, you know? And because some of our other ones we've done the one that I was telling you, what is orange instead of the, the white. It's it's orange and gray. We named it Orange Crush. We have one called Stress Factor. So the names have kind of been fitting.
And he actually come up with this one one day. He's like, what about Curb Appeal? He's like, it's going to be low. He's like, I'm like, you know what? That's kind of catchy, you know? So we just I don't know, stuck with it and everybody that heard it since they're like, oh that's fitting and I like that.
