The Matriarch

The year 1993 brought out popular movies such as “A Few Good Men” and “Jurassic Park” – and it also brought us the first 10-4 Magazine!  In honor of 10-4’s 30th anniversary, as we celebrate 1993, that year also brought a 1993 Peterbilt 357 to the Price Transport, Inc. fleet out of Germantown, WI.  This neat dump truck has become the current matriarch of the fleet and can still turn heads when working out there today.

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In trucking’s past, different truck models had been brought out for various applications for both on and off road.  Many of these models are not forgotten as they still run the roads of America today.  The Peterbilt model 357 was initially manufactured in 1986 with a striking resemblance to the 378, which came out the same year.  The 357 was designed for a heavier, rugged application, such as the construction industry.  As time went on, the 378 became more popular, thanks in part to a lower price tag, and they could be set up with the same specifications as a 357.  Both mentioned models were discontinued around 2007.

Initially forming Price Trucking, Inc. in 1991 and entering the dump truck scene out of Sussex, WI, Terry and Karla Price started with just a few trucks and drivers.  Terry, a salesman at a welding supply company, would fill in as a driver for night work and on the weekends.  Eventually, the welding supply company was bought by another company, with a Saturday morning meeting showing the company would not move forward in the same direction it was.

That same Saturday, Terry placed a call to his Peterbilt salesman and told him to find him a dump truck by that coming Monday.  The salesman laughed at the idea of finding a truck in such short notice, but things were working in Terry’s favor.  On Sunday, he received a call from his salesman that he had found a truck and it was parked in Milwaukee.  He told Terry to go look at it, and when he arrived where the truck was parked, it was in a fenced area that Terry couldn’t get to.  He called his salesman and asked if he could drive it and the salesman said “nope” – but if he wants the truck, he would have it to go to work on Monday like he wanted.  Terry hopped the fence and was sold on the truck when he opened the hood to see the big CAT underneath.  That was November of 1995.

Another interesting fact about this truck find was that Terry actually saw this truck in 1993 when it was brand new at the construction show that was held every year at the Waukesha Expo Center
in Waukesha, WI.  During that show, manufacturers of various construction equipment, as well as truck dealers, would set up to showcase the newest equipment available.  This truck was already sold to someone else but was on display in the Peterbilt booth.

This truck was repossessed from that fenced-in lot and Terry was, in fact, in the driver’s seat that Monday morning!  The truck was a solid color teal with one exhaust stack, steel wheels, a Heil dump box, single air cleaner, and was a far cry from what she looks like today.

The truck has seen plenty of changes over the years, including two complete restorations.  It has remained the same base colors throughout the years, and the first restoration was definitely a complete makeover, with all the work done in-house, with the exception of the paint, completed by TA Truck Painting out of Pewaukee, WI in the early 2000s.  The truck received flames, which were made to look like broken rock, with a special application that hadn’t been performed before.  In addition, the truck was fitted with polished wheels, dual air cleaners, single-round headlights, and dual exhaust stacks.

As the years went on, Price Trucking branched off and added Price Transport, Inc. to the mix, which took care of the dump truck side of the business, while Price Trucking handled the array of beautiful Peterbilt 379s pulling flatbed trailers.  Keeping up with the changes in the industry, eventually Terry got out of the over-the-road game, dissolving Price Trucking, while keeping things going strong in the dump truck side of the business, which is where company operations are focused today.

Truck number 70 saw the addition of stripes to the hood when the hood needed to be repainted.  That paint work was actually done in-house.  Not long after this, the truck was taken to Richfield Trailer in Richfield, WI where it was painted back to one color with an additional Peterbilt factory paint scheme as a blank canvas for an upcoming event called World of Wheels.  The new paint was completed during the winter of 2017/2018, so it was ready for the World of Wheels show in Milwaukee, WI in February of 2018.

At the time of this show, Terry’s friend Ray Drea was employed with Harley Davidson, who was a sponsor for this portion of the show.  It was a gathering of talented painters who would pinstripe panels to auction off as charity for a local children’s hospital.  They wanted to have a truck there to show how a vehicle is pinstriped for the public to see.  Ray put Terry in touch with Tramp Warner since he was heading up the project.  Tramp designed the sign (pictured), which gave direction as to what kind of striping and how the company name would be laid out on the truck.

The truck you see today is a 1993 Peterbilt 357 with a CAT 3406C, 8-speed transmission, and an 18-foot Bibeau BMT Severe Duty box.  The truck currently has 924,533 miles on her, and this year she will be undergoing her third restoration, which includes the recently repainted dump body.

The dump body was one of the first of its kind to come out when it was installed on this Peterbilt.  It is constructed of heavy-duty quarter inch steel all the way around and comes equipped with a two-way gate system.  This box came out at a time when the hydraulic high-lift gates were not yet available.  This two-way gate system allows for normal dumping applications such as stone and dirt, as well as changing the gate to a swing gate, for heavy demolition and large boulder/rock dumping.

Price Transport does an amazing job of going through each one of their trucks during the winter, getting them polished and completely detailed.  To prepare for this feature, the truck received a fresh polish and detail more recently.  Along with the detail, the dump body was repainted by Richfield Trailer, and Terry called in Berry Signs out of Brookfield, WI to lay fresh pinstriping to the box.

Thank you from Terry and Karla to their hard-working employees and to the business relationships they have acquired over the years, including Stonehaven out of Richfield, WI, for the use of their lot for the pictures.  Special thanks to Terry and Karla for not only getting the truck prepped for the photos, but for the 24 year long continued friendship.

It is hard to believe the changes we have seen in every aspect of trucks and trucking over the last 30 years, and hard to believe 1993 was the year our very own 10-4 Magazine began covering shows, trucks, and people, building on that foundation to what it is today.  Truck number 70 may not be the original truck of the fleet, but she stands tall as the current matriarch, and a hard-working one, at that.  As always, to all the drivers out there doing the deal, truck safe.