The Dirty Business Truck Show in Grand Mound, IA in many ways is like other truck shows, but has one major distinction – it’s not a judged show with any awards or trophies. It was purposely designed this way to be a fun two-day celebration for the customers of HD Equipment and those hard working truckers and their families in the trucking industry. This show is typically held in June or July, and it was the 5th show I’ve had the pleasure of participating in. This year’s event took place the weekend of July 19-20, 2024, on the grounds of HD Equipment and C&J Trucking in Grand Mound, IA. This show is one I look forward to each summer, and I always leave with a great deal of satisfaction and a smile on my face, because there are so many clean rigs at Dirty Business!
A total of 86 clean, customized and sharp trucks attended this year’s truck show. As I have witnessed in other shows this season, the quality of trucks continues to improve from year to year. Even though this is not a judged event, many owners and drivers spent all day Thursday and Friday diligently cleaning and detailing their trucks and trailers, as if it were a judged show.
There were many outstanding trucks at this year’s show, and it was difficult for me to pick a favorite. My top five picks were a mint green Peterbilt, driven by Jeff Levesque at Jack Moss Trucking, C&J Trucking’s black cherry Peterbilt 389X with a flat top sleeper, Hoewing Trucking’s white 389 Peterbilt with contrasting black and purple stripes, Dylan McCrabb Trucking and his purple Peterbilt 389 with lots of chrome and stainless, and a white 389 Peterbilt with classic black and silver stripes owned by Walter Campbell Trucking. One of the many aspects I like about this show is there is a good mix of newer, classic, and older bobtail and combo trucks.
One of the primary objectives of this show is to raise money for two important charities that HD Equipment and C&J Trucking give money to and support. Those two charities are the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital and No Foot Too Small Charities. A total of $90,000 was raised at this year’s truck show auction. A tremendous amount of sponsorship support came from the trucking industry, various vendors, and surrounding communities who helped sponsor, donate to, and participate in the auction. A total of 45 sponsors/vendors partnered with HD Equipment in this year’s Dirty Business Truck Show.
A $28,000 check was presented to the No Foot Too Small charity back on August 13 at the local City Golf Classic. I spoke to Krista Porter, a representative from the NFTS organization, on Friday morning of the show. The contributions they receive from this event go towards celebrating more children (angels) for the purpose of reaching out, supporting, and uniting families experiencing the loss of a child. In addition, they continue their mission to build more life-changing bereavement suites around the country for grieving families to use. Last year’s donation was $26,833, so the charity saw an almost 10% increase in donations from this year’s event.
Guthrie and Jay of HD Equipment and C&J Trucking will be visiting the University of Iowa in Iowa City at the end of September to present a $62,000 check to the Stead Family Children’s Hospital. I also had the opportunity to speak with Kylie and Taylor from this great organization on Friday morning, as the 10-4 Magazine booth was right next to theirs. The Stead Family Children’s Hospital is a pediatric children’s hospital that has 190 inpatient pediatric beds. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric support to patients ranging from infants to the age of 21 throughout Iowa and the Midwest. It is also the only designated Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center in the state of Iowa.
A special event shirt was designed for the show that helped raise money in memory of Scott “Skid” Galloway, a good friend to Jay and Guthrie. The shirt had a drawing of Scott’s truck “Kate” with his shop in the background, and an Iowa sunset. Scott was well known locally for his amazing personality and unforgettable laugh.
Weather for the weekend was near perfect, compared to previous Dirty Business truck shows. The days were mild by Midwest standards with low humidity, lots of sunshine, and cool nights and mornings. The only exception was Saturday morning, when it was cloudy, but the skies cleared up by early afternoon. This was the very first Dirty Business show I attended where there were no rain, thunderstorms, or severe storm warnings to deal with.
The weekend was packed with scheduled activities for adults, children, and families, alike. On Friday evening, DJ GR8DANE provided a great mix of different genres of music from 6:00 to 10:00 pm. On Saturday, a “Kids Corner” was open from 12:00 to 4:00 pm where kids could get their faces painted, color in coloring books provided by RoadWorks, or have the Balloon Guy blow-up and make a custom animal balloon for them. The 10-4 booth was located across from the Kids Corner, and this area was very busy during the hours it was open.
The much anticipated and action packed live auction took place in the C&J Trucking building from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. As previously mentioned, a total of $90,000 was raised from various products donated by many generous sponsors, vendors, and businesses from the surrounding communities. Saturday evening was capped with an impressive fireworks display in a field south of the HD Equipment building, followed by an awesome live concert put on by a local band called the Dirt Road Rockers. They played a variety of music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and I really enjoyed it.
Not many people know this, but I like to dance. My mother convinced me at a young age that to get the attention of girls, I had to learn how to dance. So, taking her advice, I started taking dance lessons in the 4th grade. Because of this, I consider myself to be an above average dancer. For some reason, listening to the Dirt Road Rockers got me in the mood to dance. So, for the first time in many years, I danced with several “victims” who will remain nameless, for over an hour. I know that I probably made a fool of myself out there, but I truly enjoyed the music and dancing!
As with previous Dirty Business shows, the Grand Mound Sportsman’s Club provided food to all the hungry participants and attendees on both Friday and Saturday. They offered hamburgers and hot dog sandwiches, pork chops, and a variety of Frito Lay products and Pepsi soft drinks. The pork chops were very excellent, and I observed many people eating them. Thursday evening, HD Equipment provided pizzas from the Railyard Restaurant & Bar located in Louden, IA for the early attendees, employees, and volunteers working the show on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday night, several of us made the drive from Grand Mound to Louden to the actual Railyard Bar & Restaurant for dinner. There were so many of us, we had to be seated in the patio area on the south side of the restaurant. We ordered a variety of appetizers and dinner items from the menu that were all delicious. It was a great few hours of fellowship and breaking bread with friends and truck show attendees. Saturday evening a Driver’s Dinner was provided by HD Equipment that consisted of pit smoked pulled pork, cheesy mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, and baked beans. The food was all so tasty, especially the macaroni salad and pulled pork, I went back for seconds. There was plenty of food that lasted well into the evening.
There are many reasons I attend all these trucks shows. The primary reason is as a representative of 10-4 Magazine to report in writing and photographs my experiences at various trucking events. But just as important is the creating and maintaining of relationships with a variety of people that I have met at all the shows. At the Dirty Business Truck Show, I got to meet and spend time with Joe Eldridge (AKA Truck Show Joe) who drives a black 389X Peterbilt for Southern Transport out of Texas. We talked about all things Texas, especially their brisket and pecan pies.
Kevin Johnson, who works at Davis Bros., stayed at the same hotel I was in and drove the “Lessons Learned” Pete combo from southern Indiana to Grand Mound. Each morning, we would meet for breakfast to talk about a variety of things, but particularly how faith has played an important part in our personal lives. At all the previous Dirty Business events, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with Jesse Hawthorne, but never had the chance to have a lengthy conversation with him. This year, we made it a point to watch the fireworks together and ended up having an in-depth conversation about the truck show and different aspects of our lives. All the personal interactions with each of these gentlemen were interesting, meaningful, and gave me a new appreciation of each one of these men – which made me very thankful for these opportunities!
It was another fun, exciting, eventful, and successful Dirty Business show. I would like to send big thanks to Guthrie, Kelly, and Jay for giving me and 10-4 Magazine the opportunity to be a part of this event. Thanks to Jay for once again providing me with a golf cart to use throughout the weekend, which makes my life much easier. There was nothing but clean and awesome rides at the 2024 Dirty Business Truck Show, which was held on a beautiful summer weekend in eastern Iowa. If you have not yet been to this show, I urge you to give it serious consideration next year – you won’t regret it if you decide to attend!