“I Still Love My Job!”

This month’s “creation” was originally built to represent Kansas City Peterbilt at the Western Farm Show in Kansas City, KS. Every year, we have a booth at the show, and every year we build a special truck to showcase the talents of our employees and (hopefully) recruit help. Our dealership is family-owned, and over the last 22 years, I have seen the owner work almost every position. This guy has done it all, and he truly understands what he’s asking us to do. We are blessed to have such a nice family of people to work with here at Kansas City Peterbilt, and they all make working here great.

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Our dealership has grown to five locations now, along with a Utility trailer dealership and a Paclease division, with over 125 rental trucks. And, as most know, it’s difficult to find talented, hard-working, caring people to hire. That’s where the farm show comes in. This event is a great place to recruit local talent! We usually have a booth that holds two trucks, and every year we test what might gather interest. We have learned there are some limitations, as one year we knocked the sprinkler heads off with a stack tip and flooded everyone’s booths downstairs. We lived through that and learned – now we know to take a flattop with removable stacks.

Over the years we have taken all kinds of new and used trucks (even some old clunkers), but in 2016 we decided to build a new truck specifically for the farm show. After hiding the DEF tank and showcasing a few other things we do, it turned out nice. After the show, Leon Murrillo purchased the yellow truck and said it was like we had ordered it just for him. It was exactly what he wanted, and he is still running it and getting looks today. In 2017 we took a new two-tone 567 day cab and a sweet brown flattop, but didn’t do any add-ons. After the show, Monte Faulk from Texas bought it. In 2018 we opted to fix up a sweet blue flattop, which was really poplar. Our friends at Legends Transport (owned by John & Nathan Oldenkamp) from Bakersfield, CA added this one to their sweet fleet.

When it came to this year’s truck, I went even further. Cathie gathered up some parts, my dad built some pieces, Jake hid the DEF tank, Pat took my paint idea, inspired by the colors of the Caribbean Ocean, and brought it to life by custom mixing the colors. Everyone in the dealership knew what the truck was for, and everyone kept an eye on it as it was coming together. When it came out of the paint booth, there was a lot of emotions – some people hated it and some loved it – but as it all came together, most people thought it was right on.

Painted a special green with a four-color Winslow-Moore striping scheme we added, the truck is a 2019 Peterbilt 389 with a 72-inch flattop, an X15 Cummins with 2,050 torque, a 13-speed and a 280-inch wheelbase. Sitting on Low Air with a car-hauler front axle on air ride, the truck also has a Platinum interior, with all the gauges and goodies, “unpublished” mid-back seats and a hidden DEF tank. The shop added a drop visor, steer axle dumps, lower seat bases, painted Fisher fenders and a Texas-style bumper. This year, we also opted for Minimizer rubber floor covering inside to keep the footprints down while on display at the show.

After the show, a new customer was at the dealership having several issues fixed on their company-owned truck. We went above and beyond what was expected on this truck (that is how we roll) and left such a good impression on the drivers, they put in a good word with the owner of their company, who buys trucks all the time. These drivers also told their boss about the “cool” farm show truck sitting there. Well, long story short, to thank us for the service and help we gave, the owner bought the truck!

So, this year’s farm show truck is now part of a 700-truck fleet and has a super-nice and polite team driving it, for now. Pictured is Dwight and Joan Lutke, drivers for American Motor Lines out of Wayne, IN, a division of SteelPro, which specializes in hauling steel. I want to thank everyone at KC Peterbilt for doing such a great job on this truck, and for treating these people so well that they thanked us by buying a truck! From Will who keeps the place sparkling clean, to Chris who owns it all – I love my KC Pete family. They are all awesome, and just another reason why I still say, “I love my job!”