This month’s creation was ordered for our good friends at Central Valley Transport (CVT) in Bakersfield, CA. The Pounds family and CVT were featured on the cover of 10-4 Magazine back in August 2005. Back then, their trucks were a rose color, and they mostly hauled ag products, like potatoes, and did harvesting. These days, they are venturing into moving heavy equipment, the trucks are red, and the 4th generation is now solidly involved in the operation.
This is the fifth new 389 Peterbilt the Pounds family has ordered from me. This family trucking and harvesting outfit was started by Frank Pounds back in the 1940s and is now owned and operated by two of Frank’s grandkids, brothers Keith and Mark Pounds. Also involved in the business today are most of their kids, the 4th generation of Pounds, which includes Mark’s youngest son Colton (pictured here with his wife and kids), and several others.
Knowing that the 389 was going away, the Pounds family decided to try to get some before they were all gone. They gave me a call, and I was able to get one slot for them. Fortunately, they were able to pick up an additional two slots from EM Tharp in Porterville, CA. This latest truck is one of the last 2024 Peterbilt 389s built, which was custom ordered with a big front axle, big rears, a modest wheelbase, a small sleeper, the biggest motor offered, and a tough driveline capable of moving the big stuff.
Ordered in red with all the goodies, Mark met me in Texas when the truck came offline, and then we shipped it to us in KC from Denton. When it showed up, KC Pete gathered a few pieces and Lilly was tasked with the small list of changes they decided to have us do before picking it up. Some of those modifications included hiding the DEF tank, doing a body drop, and setting it up for dummy pipes. Our crew in the body shop also reskinned the passenger side cab door and then painted it to match. After that, CVT came by and picked it up, hauling it back to their shop in California to do the rest of the work.
Even though this one took a while to finish, their shop did an amazing job dialing in not only this truck, but the other two, as well, all while maintaining the rest of their other trucks and equipment. Getting help from Johnny at Redlands Transport in Riverside on some sweet ramps and painting the frame, they also had Ron Beam in Bakersfield add some really nice pinstriping and lettering to top it all off.
The look and quality of this build is not only beautiful, but it is set up to haul the heavy stuff, too, which is why we custom ordered the dash plaque to say “Quite a Few Pounds” (a little play on words for the Pounds family and the fact that this one is a heavy-duty lowboy truck). I would have loved to have more 389 slots, but as my mom always says, “Do the best with what you get, and never worry about what you don’t.” The Peterbilt allocation is solely based on quantity of trucks the dealership had ordered in previous years, so we could only get so many.
I appreciate the Pounds family for both their friendship and business and am grateful they let me order this one here. I have come to realize over the years, it is not possible for me to sell every Peterbilt made, so I just sell the special ones, and this one definitely is that.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Big thanks to our friend and occasional contributor Angelina Gaare for taking the pictures of this truck, along with Colton and his family, for this article.