The Brothers Chase

Two men… two cool trucks… one vision… one company. One knew from the time he was little that he would become not only a truck driver, but a truck owner – the other followed in his little brother’s footsteps. While some may become an owner operator and stay a one-truck operation, these two men each became an owner operator and formed a partnership called Chase Trucking. And, based on their equipment seen here, the venture has worked out, pretty well.

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It has been said that trucking is in your blood. Most of the time, this “bug” is simply passed from one generation to the next, but, in this case, it was passed through stories a father told his son of trucking, done prior to his birth, that ignited a love for a subject in each of those stories… trucks.

Three sons were born to Mike and Carolyn Chase, who were married on August 5, 1972. Mike drove full-time for about eight years, hauling cattle feeding equipment across the Midwest, while his father owned a manufacturing shop. Jason, Mike and Carolyn’s oldest son, was born on September 11, 1975. In 1978, Mike stopped driving and went to work as a mechanic for Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, which ran and maintained a very large open-access interstate natural gas pipeline network. Shortly after the job transition, Mike and Carolyn welcomed their second son, Shanan, on January 26, 1979. It wasn’t until their third son Colton came along, on May 13, 1988, that Mike’s stories of driving would make a lasting impression on a little boy who became passionate about big trucks.

Oddly enough, according to Mike, it wasn’t so much the good times of driving that made the most memorable stories, but the ones about when things went wrong, didn’t go quite right, or included poor and/or difficult driving conditions – those were the ones that seemed to spark Colton’s interest, the most. While some dreamed of driving tractors and combines during harvest season, Colton dreamed of driving a semi, hauling grain. The week of his 18th birthday, in May of 2006, Colton obtained his CDL and started hauling grain for local farmers and trucking companies, until everything changed in June of 2009. Why? Colton turned 21 the previous month, bought his own truck, and Chase Trucking was born.

Meanwhile, the middle Brother Chase, Shanan, had moved to Colorado, and Jason was busy being a cowboy, riding pens at a local feed lot. When an unforeseen drought happened, affecting both the farms and ranches, it eventually trickled down to the companies and people directly involved, including feed lots and cowboys. Hours were cut, and the lots were running low on cattle. Colton had taken a milk run contract and there was a lot of hours involved, so his brother Jason started riding along with him and learning the ropes. Before long, Jason was helping Colton on the runs. In 2012, Chase Trucking became a company of two owner operators when Jason, after discussing it with his wife Jenny, decided that he would drive truck until the feed lots picked back up again. But, as these things tend to go, his new-found passion for driving kept him in the seat, and he hasn’t looked back since.

In addition to these two brothers, Chase Trucking also includes their wives, who play active roles in the operation by supporting their husbands and the company, as well. Jason and Jenny were married on August 14, 1998. Colton met Lauren in Colorado in July of 2011, and the two were married August 25, 2012. Both couples planted their roots in Kansas, not far from their parents, and remain a close-knit family.

But what about the trucks? These two trucks are very similar in some respects, but almost completely different from the outside. Colton’s “American Outlaw” truck is a 2002 Peterbilt 379 with a 63-inch Unibilt standup sleeper. After a complete makeover, Colton and Lauren made their way through the ATSC show circuit, and also earned a spot in the 2018 SuperRigs Calendar. Jason’s “God, Guns and Glory” truck is a 2003 Peterbilt 379 sporting a sleek 63-inch Unibilt flattop sleeper.

When Jason purchased his truck, Colton dropped his hopper bottom and they both ran belt trailers for about six months, then they both moved back to pulling hopper bottoms. Both trucks run on CAT power with C-15s and 18-speed Eaton Fuller transmissions. Colton has the first Timpte Super Hopper off the line for model year 2018. It was pre-ordered in January, and he took delivery of it in February 2017. Jason also has a 2018 Timpte Super Hopper, which he took delivery of back in November of 2017. Along with both men pulling hopper bottoms, they also each have a 2014 MAC liquid tank trailer (LTT).

The photo shoots were done on a beautiful Kansas day – one of the last remaining beautiful days of the year. Special thanks to Hansen-Mueller for the use of their facility in Kismet, KS, along with Josh Dickson of Dickson Aerial Spraying in Plains, KS for the use of their property and piloting one of their crop dusters. Also, thanks to Jenny Chase and Southwest Family Farms for the use of their property for all the great photos we were able to take.

Even though these trucks are very clean and show-worthy, they both work almost every day of the week. When these two run their hopper bottoms, the usual commodities are local grain, DDG, dry fertilizer, meat and bone meal, and other animal feeds. With the MAC LTTs, they haul liquid fertilizer. If the need arose, those trailers can also be used to haul runway deicer, DEF or corn oil. It all depends on what season it is, regarding which trailer you’ll see being pulled by one of these large cars.

The Chase brothers can normally be seen hauling out of the Hansen-Mueller local facilities and Tyson Foods in Garden City, KS. Fertilizer is hauled out of the Port of Catoosa in Tulsa, OK, as well as several ethanol plants in Iowa and Nebraska. Grain from Hansen-Mueller is mostly hauled to Arkalon Ethanol in Liberal, KS, and some of the meat and bone meal is hauled out of National Beef in Liberal, KS. All the liquid fertilizer is hauled for Agroliquid in Goodland, KS.

It was a nice getaway to Kansas for me to shoot these two beauties, but the friendships made with these families is what means the most. They are good people, with a strong work ethic, and respectful backgrounds – people you want to be friends with and hear their stories! Smalltown U.S.A. boasts plenty of farming and ranching communities, but what it doesn’t account for is the humble truckers that make their living on the biggest truck show in the world… the open road. As always, to all the drivers out there doing the deal, including The Brothers Chase, truck safe.