In Honor Of His Dad

In the produce hauling game, there aren’t many names as well-known as Kimball, and it all started with “Big Ed” – the patriarch of the family – over 60 years ago. Today, his youngest son Danny Kimball (48) of Waterford, WI, along with his brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews, and a slew of others that collectively call themselves “the Kimball boys” are carrying on Ed’s legacy. Danny’s current truck and trailer, the one seen here, was built and painted to replicate many of the trucks Ed and his company ran throughout the 1980s and early 90s, and the completion of this tribute rig was something everyone in the family always wanted to do. So, Danny, with help from several others, finally did it!

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Growing up on a farm in Illinois, Ed Kimball and his siblings (two brothers and three sisters) later moved to Wisconsin. Ed started hauling hay in gas-powered trucks in the 1950s. He later graduated to a diesel-powered Mack with a sleeper and began pulling reefers and hauling produce. In the late 1950s, he moved down to Florida, and in 1960 he bought a brand-new red Autocar. A year later, in 1961, Ed went to work hauling produce for Greenstein’s in Pompano Beach, FL. While at Greenstein’s, Ed started buying cabover Kenworths, and had several nice ones, including his claim to fame – a green, white and black 1970 K100 with a V12 Detroit.

Ten years later, in 1971, Ed and his family moved back to Wisconsin and formed Ed Kimball & Sons Trucking in Waterford. At the time, he had about five trucks – nothing too fancy – mostly just work trucks. But, over the years, that would change. Ed and his wife Madelyn had six kids: Brian (70), Glen (66), Kevin (63), John (would have been 61), Kim Ellen (55) and Danny (48). Danny was born in Wisconsin a year after they moved back from Florida. After moving back to Wisconsin and continuing to haul produce, they also began hauling sod, and did very well. The company eventually grew to 20 trucks. During this time, Ed started ordering all their trucks in his signature Seminole paint scheme featuring dark brown, copper, and white colors.

In the late 1990s, the company name was changed to Kimball Transportation. As Ed was getting older, his oldest son Brian began taking over the operation in the early 2000s, but Ed remained the figurehead of the outfit. After being diagnosed with Leukemia and given six months to live, Ed trucked for another six years, opting never to do any chemo, before passing away in 2009. The truck he drove up until six weeks before his death – a white 1971 Kenworth W900A with red stripes – is still sitting in their yard. The Kimball boys hope to one day restore that rig to its former glory.

Growing up immersed in trucking, Danny always knew what he wanted to do. He never paid much attention in school and often got in trouble for doodling pictures of trucks. At a very young age, Danny started washing and polishing the trucks just so he could drive them around the yard. Later, he began going out on runs with his older brother Glen, but after falling asleep too many times, Glen started making Danny shift his Mack Super-Liner’s 10-speed to keep him awake. On a run to a garden center, delivering sod, Glen left Danny in the truck and went inside to handle the paperwork. Apparently, the rig was blocking someone in, so the guy asked if the truck could be moved. Not being able to find his brother, Danny backed the truck and 42’ flatbed trailer out of the driveway and onto the street by himself – he was only ten years old at the time!

At 16 years old, Danny could “legally” drive within a 200-mile radius as long as he was hauling farm products. Hauling sod, wheat, grain and “other” items to Chicago and points beyond, he often stretched the rules a bit and went to Michigan, as well. At 18, he started driving a red 1987 Kenworth T600 for his dad (with a co-driver) to Florida. After about six months, he slipped into a stretched-out 1986 KW T600 with a custom 120” sleeper, that his brothers owned. Painted in the Kimball brown and copper Seminole paint scheme, along with a few extra murals and such, Danny drove this rig for a while, until they decided to sell it and replace it with a Freightliner. Not wanting to drive a Freightliner, Danny bought the truck and continued to drive it a few more years, until he bought his first new truck – a teal colored 1994 Kenworth W900L.

Leased to the family business, Danny drove this KW for about two years and then ordered his first working truck that he intended to take to the truck shows – a white 1996 Kenworth W900L with a Studio sleeper, a 280” wheelbase, and a purple frame and fenders. In 1997, he entered the KW in its first show (the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY) as a bobtail, and did well. The following two years, with a new 48’ matching Great Dane spread axle reefer in tow, he entered in the combo classes at MATS and again did good. He also secured a spot on the SuperRigs calendar with this truck.

At the end of 1999, Danny ordered his next “show” truck – a 2000 Kenworth W900L with a Studio sleeper and a 300” wheelbase. This truck, painted white with a turquoise frame and blue, orange, and turquoise stripes, was often referred to as the “Miami Dolphins truck” by many because those are the colors of the NFL football team, even though it said “Twice Upon a Dream” on the side of the sleeper. Danny showed this truck at many events over the next couple years and earned plenty of trophies, along with his second spot on the SuperRigs calendar, but in 2002, frustrated with the politics, he quit participating in shows altogether.

Getting tired of the produce deal, he sold his reefer trailer in 2004, bought a curtain-side, and went to work at Long Haul Trucking in Albertville, MN. Danny stayed there for about a year and a half, and then switched over to R & J Transport out of Manitowoc, WI, where he ran heavy-haul and oversize loads for the next eight years. Shortly after going to R & J, he realized his truck was too big and heavy for the job, so he sold it and bought his one and only Peterbilt – a 2005 379 with a flat top sleeper. In 2013, he sold the Peterbilt and bought a used Kenworth T660 with a Studio sleeper and went back to pulling reefers. At the time, fuel was expensive, and Danny was looking to up his mileage.

In 2014, Danny’s son Roman was born. At just twelve days old, he contracted meningitis, a bacterial infection in the brain, which put him in the hospital for five months. During that time, he also had two strokes, which left him with learning disabilities. Danny says that Roman is very smart and he understands things, he just has trouble communicating and learns at a slower pace. Danny was never married to Roman’s mother, but the two have joint custody of their son. Basically, whenever Danny is home, he gets Roman. So, he tries to be home as much as possible. He also says Roman loves to go trucking!

Looking to be closer to home during this time, Danny started doing local reefer runs, and did this for the next several years. During this time, in 2015, he sold the T660 and purchased the 2007 Kenworth W900L seen here, although it did not look like it does today. Painted white with burnt orange fenders, the truck, which already had 1.5 million miles on it, had the big 120” ARI sleeper, but the wheelbase was only 300 inches long. Powered by a Caterpillar C15 ACERT hooked to an 18-speed, Danny did a few things to the truck, but not much, and then put it to work. In July of 2019, he went back to Kimball Transportation and rejoined the family business, now owned and operated by his brother Brian.

Realizing that he had depreciated the truck all he could, he was left with a decision – buy another truck or dump a bunch of money into this one. Based on the photos here, I’m guessing you can figure out what he decided to do. In November of 2019, he called his nephew Nick Kimball, who runs AMCAN Truck Parts in nearby Pewaukee, WI, and started talking about what he wanted to do. As mentioned before, everyone in the Kimball family has always wanted to build a tribute truck in honor of “Big Ed” Kimball, so Nick was excited to be part of the project.

After having the rig stretched in December to 324 inches and updating the rear suspension from an older 8-bag system to a newer 4-bag Low AirLeaf system, the 2007 Kenworth W900L was taken to AMCAN in January of 2020 to begin the restoration. The initial thought was that the refurbished truck and trailer would be finished in time to debut it at the MATS show in Louisville, KY in March but, well, we all know how that went. This was also one of those “snowball” builds, as Nick called it – once you start tearing things apart, you find lots more to fix, and what started as a simple refresh and repaint, quickly become an entire rebuild.

Wanting the truck to look like Ed’s old A-model Kenworths, the first thing they did was install a new Jones Performance hood with A-model double round light holes, which they filled with LED headlights. Then, Nick made and installed 2” spacers behind the factory 24” fuel tanks to push them out a bit and align them with the outside edges of the wider sleeper. They also removed the cab extenders at the back of the sleeper and replaced all the stainless on the back wall. Switching out the stock square cab lights with bullet-style LEDs and glass watermelon lenses from Grand General, five were added to the top of the cab and the top of the sleeper. A glass watermelon LED was also added to each end of the 20” Valley Chrome bumper, which included painted tow hook holes, for that classic Kenworth look. When it came time to spray the Seminole paint scheme, which was done by Total Appearance Collision and Graphics next door to AMCAN, Danny deviated just a bit from the actual company colors, opting instead for a metallic coffee brown, metallic caramel (the burnt orange color) and off-white.

Once the paint was completed, it was time to add all the exterior accessories, including 7” Dynaflex exhaust with old-school heat shields, specially-made A-model style step box covers from 12 Ga. Customs, Hogebuilt stainless half fenders, and a painted flush mount deck plate and polished rear bumper from Iowa Customs. The stainless visor and air cleaner light panels were made by RLK Services, new stainless trim pieces with old-style “turtleback” LEDs from Truck-Lite were installed on the sleeper and cab, and a “Krooked K” emblem from Roadsknz was added to the front, along with a classic chrome swan hood ornament. Brown vinyl bras were made to cover the forward-facing edges of the boxes under the sleeper, and a mini whale tail, similar to the one on the roof of the sleeper, was made by 12 Ga. to mount on the deck plate behind the sleeper to cover the air bags.

Moving inside the cab, the interior, which was all gray, had a lot of cigarette smoke damage from the previous owner. So, instead of trying to save it, they ordered a complete interior from Randy at Spare Time Fab, who used camel tan and black leather throughout all the button tuck package, including the door panels, headliner, walls, glove box and more. Nick and the guys at AMCAN also installed a factory sunroof, a painted SCI steering wheel, black carpet, and a nice (but not crazy) stereo with a DVD player, JL Audio amps, speakers and subs, and a touch screen. They also dyed the gray dash black and painted the dash panels in the metallic coffee brown color. Back in the big sleeper, which has a sink, convection oven, toilet, shower, refrigerator, printer/scanner, a TV mounted on the wall, and plenty of counter space, the whole interior was dyed to match the color in the cab.

Under the hood, initially, not too much was done, besides cleaning up and painting the engine, along with the intake tubes, radiator, radiator shroud and fan blades. Unfortunately, once it got back on the road after the build, it immediately began to have mechanical issues, so three months after the project was finished, Danny shut it down for another month and had the powertrain completely rebuilt. The Cat C15 was rebuilt to a C16 with over 800-hp, the 18-speed transmission was also rebuilt, and the drivelines, clutch, and heater core were all replaced, as well. It now runs like a top!

Dragging behind this beautiful machine is a matching polished 2016 Utility sliding spread reefer trailer with a lift axle. This trailer features metallic brown paint on the upper and lower rails, lots of lights, a painted-to-match reefer unit, Hogebuilt stainless quarter fenders, and stainless boxes between the wheels, which slide with the front axle. On the back of the trailer is a large vinyl graphic of the Kimball Transportation logo, and then there is a smaller one on the top of the reefer unit (facing forward). To finish it all off, Danny had “Big Ed” put on the back of the whale tail on top of the sleeper, in honor of his dad (it’s also what he calls the truck).

This was a huge project, so Danny wanted to thank some folks that helped, including Bruce Chartier, Tim Schmidt, Kevin Conner, his nephew Nick Kimball, and everyone at AMCAN and Total Appearance. Nick wanted to thank Alfonso “Fonz” Valadez, Julia (who runs the store), and Jim Higgins at 12 Ga. Customs for all their help and support during the build. Danny also wanted to give special thanks to his mom, Madelyn, who at 89 years young, is still very active. Running around in her little diesel-powered Volkswagen Beetle, she not only babysits Roman and takes him to school when needed, but she also does all Danny’s paperwork and taxes, and even still does all the laundry for all her boys – who are grown men! They say she really enjoys doing it, so we will just have to believe them.

Total Appearance, which specializes in collision repair, custom fabrication, paint, signs, and vinyl graphics, has been in business for 37 years and is responsible for some of the coolest rides in and around Wisconsin. AMCAN opened in 2014, in the same building as TA, as their sister company. Nick grew up in trucking and worked in the parts department at the local KW dealer for five years before coming to AMCAN, which specializes in parts and accessories sales (but obviously they know how to build trucks, as well). We are happy to announce that you can now pick up your free copy of 10-4 Magazine each and every month at AMCAN in Pewaukee, WI.

The truck, which is now on the verge of hitting two million miles, is used every day, and typically hauls produce between Wisconsin and Florida every week. But, with a new haul for a concrete company, Danny has been running concrete products from the Midwest to the Northeast on a weekly basis for the past few months, instead. With five company-owned rigs and 8-10 dedicated owner operators, Kimball Transportation is a Florida Corporation, even though it is now based in Waterford, WI.

Danny is the only leased operator at the company, which is now owned by his older brother Brian. But everyone helps out and works there, including Brian’s wife Pat, brother Glen and his wife Valerie, and of course Danny. Their brother Kevin Kimball and his wife Sue have their own trucking operation in Minnesota, their sister Kim Ellen is a nurse, and their brother John Kimball, who was very active in the company until 2004, died in 2009 just two months prior to his father’s passing. Many of the kids and grandkids are getting involved now, too, and Brian is grooming his son Ryan to one day soon take it over. Ryan, with Danny’s help, wants to expand the types of freight they haul and maybe even offer some warehousing services in the future.

Even though he just finished this project, Danny has others in mind, as well, including restoring his first W900L and his dad’s old A-model, which are both sitting in their yard, waiting to get some attention. He would also like to build a K100 like the green, white, and black one his dad had with the V12 Detroit. In fact, Danny not only has a 1972 Kenworth K100 that is ready to be rebuilt, but he also has the actual green and gold interior out of his dad’s old cabover, and hopes to one day put it in his.

Family is the most important thing to Danny, and he is proud to drive a truck that honors his dad and his family’s company. “I know this truck means a lot to all the Kimball boys, and that really makes me happy,” said Danny. He also joked that the Kimball family is like Walgreens – there’s one on every corner! On the back of his visor it says, “The difference between men and boys is the size of their toys” – a statement that was on the back of one of Danny’s first trucks, that big bunk T600 which inspired much of this truck. Well, if this really big truck is any indication of Danny Kimball’s stature or station in life, his legendary dad “Big Ed” Kimball would be proud of the man he has become and would love the truck he built and named in his honor!