Trucking is a lifestyle that isn’t for everyone. Some love it, hate to love it, love to hate it, some it is just a job, and some have no idea that driving is what they will end up doing for a living. The last is how it came to be for Kali Heuchert (34) of Triple H LLC out of Parkers Prairie, MN, where going to college led to buying a Peterbilt 379.
A native of Minnesota, Kali was born and raised in the Alexandria area, and what comes as a shock to some is that she didn’t come from a trucking background. Basically, her firsthand exposure to trucking comes from her husband David who got his CDL while serving in the National Guard from 2007 to 2013. The two met during the Summer of 2011.
Kali went to college for Accounting and Business, but little did she know her course of life was going to be taking a different turn than how she originally saw it. Her and David welcomed their son Wyatt into the world on May 24, 2013. Kali continued in her venture of college and, somehow in a conversation with one of her classmates, she told Kali of a truck her dad was looking to sell. At this point, Kali knew nothing about big trucks, but she knew she liked the color of the truck – it was yellow.
She told David she found him a truck that had been sitting in a shed for two years and it was yellow with black fenders. He wanted to know what kind of truck it was, and she said, “I think they said it was a 379 or something.” Well, a 379 is exactly what David had always wanted. The two ended up going to look at it in the fall of 2013, or rather, David went out to look at the truck and Kali went into the house with the owner’s wife. About an hour went by when David came into the house and said he wanted something like that one day. Unbeknown to him, Kali had paid $15,000 for the truck and told him, “I already bought it, here’s the title.”
This yellow truck didn’t hit the road immediately because Kali and David were in the process of trying to buy a house. In the spring of 2014, around the same time Kali graduated from college, David had the truck on the road running locally and, a short time later, on July 26, 2014, he and Kali were married. Kali definitely took an interest in trucking but went to work after college in her field of study. That same year though, she wanted David to teach her how to drive, but that didn’t work out so well, and they chose their marriage over the teaching.
She didn’t give up on learning how to drive a commercial motor vehicle, just chose a different route – truck driving school at Alexandria Technical College. She completed the driver training course in December 2014 and, after graduating, started working for a local logging company pulling a walking floor trailer with a red W900. This time offered her a diversified experience pulling several different types of trailers including end dumps, tankers, stepdecks, and livestock trailers. This happened through an understanding she had from the female owner of the trucking company she worked for who understood Kali’s need to be home with her son every night. At the time, David was running regional, so there wasn’t a guarantee he would be home every night.
In 2018, they switched things up. With David taking a local position, Kali jumped behind the wheel of the 379, getting their own authority, and moving the company in a more OTR direction. The following year, she went to her first truck show – No Coast Large Cars in Britt, IA. Ironically, that was the first time I attended that show and I unknowingly saw Kali, but we hadn’t been introduced. However, she appeared in my show report because I took a photo of her standing on top of the cab of a different truck, as she helped wipe down the stacks. Fast forward a couple years, and that yellow 379 was about to see a few changes.
Initially, Eric Engle, owner of Engle Specialties, wanted to practice painting on the truck, but Kali’s OCD kicked in and pretty soon the whole truck was down to just the shell and frame. At one point, David stopped at the shop and said, “You better get that back together,” and then didn’t see the truck until it was finished. Kali was in on the painting herself with help from Eric, who she rented a shop bay from. She rebuilt the hood, re-paneled the cab corners and sleeper, but her biggest hurdle was trying to get parts, because everything seemed to be on backorder. The last two weeks to finish the truck were a rush because she wanted it completed in time to take it to the 2023 No Coast Large Cars show. She did make the show, officially unveiling the truck there, then left the show straight away to get the truck into the fields for harvest season.
No longer yellow, the truck you see pictured today is a 1999 Peterbilt 379 that ended up the color it is now with a mix of colors together, starting with black cherry, which in certain light pulls more purple. It has a Cummins N14 under the hood, a 13-speed transmission, 3.55 rears, and a 265-inch wheelbase. It sports custom “Lady Luck” hood emblems from Lifetime Nut Covers, a RoadWorks visor, and Bad Ass Customs cab and sleeper drop panels. Impressively enough, when the restoration project started in December 2021, Kali did much of the project herself, with assistance from others. To complete this project, she was running tanker loads and slept pretty much every night at the shop to get this truck finished.
A big shout out from Kali to those involved in helping with this truck, including Eric Engle for all the shop help, the support of her family, and her son Wyatt (now 10), who helped tear apart the inside, and who’s vision pretty much dictated how the truck ended up looking. Wyatt helped with the wiring in the truck and has goals and aspirations of driving and building trucks when he is older. He never forgot that red W900 his mom started driving and really wanted the 379 to be red, so Kali tried to compromise. She did, however, hire her friend John to install the rear window, just like in that W900 Wyatt was so fond of.
Today, Kali runs over-the-road with her dog Atlas and, whenever he can, her son Wyatt goes along for the ride, too. David is a local propane hauler for the local Co-op and the “BS manager of the funny farm” with his duties of raising the cattle they have. Wyatt loves riding in “his” truck and going to shows to get ideas for this 379 (and future project trucks they might happen upon).
The company currently has three trucks, with their two drivers pulling tankers. Kali drives the third truck, and pulls a refrigerated trailer hauling mostly produce, on a dedicated run to either Portland, OR or Miami, FL. Right now she is on the hunt on Marketplace for a 359 for David. When Kali isn’t trucking, she said her best time is just being a “homebody” content in homesteading, gardening, cooking, canning, tinkering with projects, and other farm stuff at home. Kali joked and said she drives a truck so she can afford to build things. There is a future plan for finishing the truck’s interior to her liking. They feel the company is in a good spot currently, so they don’t foresee any immediate changes or growth for the time being.
David and Kali’s marriage dynamic really works for them because David likes his routine, while he calls Kali a “gypsy” because she likes going all over in the truck. Prior to the switch, David struggled with being gone from home, and Kali struggled with the same thing day to day, as well. David and Wyatt enjoy their time together when Kali is on the road and call it “guy week.” She said it is huge to have a husband who supports her dreams, and they have a mutual understanding, along with being each other’s support system.
Kali’s dog Atlas is definitely her shadow and, at eight years old, doesn’t show signs of slowing. Her old dog had passed away and shortly thereafter she got Atlas. With the loss still heavy on her heart, for about three months she called Atlas “dog.” Her mom finally said she needed to name him “Atlas” because of the many travels. Kali had to watch the weather forecast because for a while she didn’t have working air conditioning, so if it was going to be too hot, Atlas would have to stay home with David. She would get Snapchats of “her dog” not eating or pouting from David while she was out on the road.
Remember reading that Kali didn’t know anything about trucking? She is self-taught by cultivating friendships with supportive, knowledgeable people, many YouTube videos, and her dad never singling her out in his teachings because she was a girl. Grit is the first description that comes to mind, because she has it, along with a fierce determination and a desire to learn. This 379 taught her a lot and what it didn’t teach her, it forced her to learn (oftentimes the hard way). For those looking to get into the trucking industry, Kali said, “Find a good mentor and good people to teach you.”
Being vertically challenged (short) is one of the obstacles she has conquered by learning how to do things differently. She has faced the men who think that just because she is a woman, she doesn’t know what she is doing. She mentioned that it bothered her in the beginning, but now it doesn’t bother her as much, as this usually stops when she climbs up in that pretty 379 and drives away.
Kali was highly recommended by my dear friend Debbie Setter (March 2022 feature) who said I needed to check out the truck Kali was building. I sent Kali a friend request in July 2022 so I could see for myself what was going on with her 379. We chatted on Messenger here and there and as we rounded into 2023, plans started to unfold for us to schedule my trip to Minnesota. Less than a week shy of a year after sending her that friend request, I made my way to Parkers Prairie to enjoy some visiting, dinner, planning, and then photographing the truck the following morning before making my way back to Wisconsin. There aren’t many times I have been able to photograph all at one location, but Kali and David’s homestead provided such a location. This made it easy and less time-consuming when moving the truck around to get the photos I needed.
Special thanks from Kali to her father Kraig who taught her to learn everything she can, to never have to rely on others, and influenced her a lot to be independent. To Howie, the first broker she had, who also became a second father to her and taught her the business side of things, and how to think like a business owner. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, and with him went her hopper pulling days, because it just wasn’t the same without him. Thank you to her husband David for his love and support, to Eric Engle for making this all happen, her son Wyatt for always helping and putting up with her, and to Kevin Rodewald of KCR Trucking for keeping the wheels rolling.
Thank you to Kali for the formed friendship, the great conversations, for being an inspiration, and welcoming me into your home. It is great listening to you talk about your truck, from the beginning, through the restore process and how it came to be the truck it is today. Success comes from the obstacles we overcome, and the path life takes us on to bring us where we are supposed to be. As always, to all the drivers out there doing the deal, truck safe.
