Truckers in the moving and storage industry, aka Bedbuggers, operate some of the coolest rigs in trucking, and these men and women are probably some of the hardest working individuals in the industry you will ever meet. Just imagine packing up your house, then loading it all up into a tractor-trailer, then driving several hundreds or even thousands of miles, then unloading it all a day or two later, and then doing this all over again, day after day, and week after week, for years on end. Sounds pretty tiring, doesn’t it? Well, for the most part, that’s the life of a Bedbugger.
If you think you’ve got it rough bumpin’ a dock with a van or reefer at a shipper or receiver somewhere, go and move household furniture up and down flights of stairs on a regular basis, and I’m pretty sure you’ll miss that run to a warehouse, even if you might have to sit for a while waiting to get unloaded.
The thing that I always found cool about the moving and storage industry were the trucks. Back in the day, cabovers were king and you’d see Kenworth K100 Aerodynes, Freightliners, Peterbilt 352 and 362 double-bunks, and International cabovers, all rollin’ up and down the interstates (or in your neighborhood). Fancy paint schemes with the truck matching the trailer were common, and in many cases, that is still true today.
Although the moving and storage industry has changed over the years and companies have consolidated, the basics of the job remain the same. For second generation moving and storage industry veteran Spencer Mathis Jr., it’s all he knows and all he’s done for a living since the late 1970s when he was a kid.
Originally from Washougal, Washington, which is located just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, Spencer spent a lot of time riding in his father’s truck, and as he got older, he began to help load and unload. “I like to tell everyone I grew up in a 1976 Bicentennial KW K100C Aerodyne,” said Spencer, referring to Bill Keenan, who was a family friend and owner operator leased to an agent of Fort Wayne, Indiana based North American Van Lines (NAVL). “Bill ran the 11 western states, and I helped Bill on his truck in the summertime when I was around 12 years old until I turned 18, then started helping him full-time,” said Spencer.
At the age of 21, Spencer began driving a company truck for a NAVL agent and he bought his first truck – a 1992 International 9700 cabover – at the age of 28. “I bought my first trailer at that time too, which was a tandem-axle 48-foot Kentucky double drop frame ‘Big Bertha’ with super singles. Those trailers have more room in them since the wheel wells are not as large. I traded that trailer a couple years later and then upgraded to a 51-foot ‘Super Bertha’ with three axles and six tires,” said Spencer, as he told me about some of the unique trailers and equipment that are used in the moving and storage industry.
“My dad pulled doubles back in the 1970s when he was leased to NAVL and kept telling me that I needed to get a set,” said Spencer. So, in 1997, he took his father’s advice and bought a set of 1990 28.5-foot Kentucky drop-frame doubles. “The biggest advantage of pulling a set of doubles is the maneuverability and access factor for loading and unloading,” said Spencer, continuing with, “When you’re somewhere that’s tight, like in New York City, you can’t get those big trailers in there, so it’s easier to get a pup in there and not have to run a shuttle truck from the customer to your trailer in order to pack and load. There’s also the weight factor,” he said, adding, “It’s easy to get over axle with a traditional moving trailer, but with the doubles, the weight is spread more evenly over them.”
Even though North American Van Lines and Allied Van lines have been owned by the same company (Sirva, Inc.) since 1999, Spencer decided to make a change in 2002. Going from the NAVL colors of blue and white to the Omaha orange and black of Allied Van Lines, he leased on to Elizabeth, New Jersey Allied Agent, Reliable Van and Storage. Having recently purchased his third set of Kentucky doubles, Spencer ordered a brand new pair of 28.5-foot double drop pups in 2023.
Painted in Allied’s classic livery, the trailers are dressed out with 22.5 Alcoa aluminum rims, that are wrapped in Continental tires, with stainless steel front corners. The trailers are mated together using a 2014 Silver Eagle Manufacturing converter dolly. While his pups are cool and definitely unique, Spencer’s 1986 K100E Aerodyne really makes his set-up one-of-a-kind in this day and age of trucking.
A fan of K100 Aerodyne cabovers, Spencer has owned and operated four of them throughout the years – a 1980, a 1988, a 1990 and now this 1986. “I purchased this truck back in 2014 from an NAVL owner operator who was based out of California,” said Spencer. “I had been operating a 2003 Freightliner Columbia that came from the factory with a single-axle setup, but I wanted another K100 Aerodyne,” said Spencer.
Originally a twin screw, Spencer removed the 8-bag Kenworth suspension and axles after getting the truck home, telling me, “I pulled the drive axle and the Airliner suspension and transmission out of the Freightliner Columbia to use in the K100E.” Powered by a Caterpillar 3406B and mated to an Eaton-Fuller 13-speed transmission with a 3.70 ratio rear, the K100E rides on a 195-inch wheelbase, with 22.5 Alcoa aluminum rims, wrapped in Goodyear rubber, on both the steer and drive axle.
“I’ve had the entire interior completely out of this truck, including the entire dashboard,” said Spencer. While it rolled out of Kenworth’s Chillicothe plant in 1986 with a blue VIT diamond tuck interior, “Every piece of the interior upholstery has been dyed black and all the trim pieces were painted in charcoal gray,” Spencer said as he kept telling me about all the custom work he’s done to the Kenworth. “I had new covers made for the Vista windows and also had a custom privacy curtain made that covers the entire front windows and both the passenger and driver door windows,” explaining how it makes for more room at night in the truck when parked.
The truck currently has around a million miles on it and still has all its original gauges, knobs and switches, but lots of new wiring and other dashboard components have been added. Black low back Bostrom Wide-Ride air-ride seats are now on both the driver and passenger side of the truck, then he went ‘old school’ with a classic white ivory steering wheel and a vintage shift knob. The Kenworth K100E will definitely rock, too! With a Kenwood head unit for tunes, along with eight speakers and four subwoofers from Rockford Fosgate installed, this setup really keeps Spencer entertained and enjoying his music as he’s rollin’ down the highway.
As you can tell, Spencer is not one to leave things stock. Under the doghouse, the 3406B has been tuned with custom injectors and a Bully Dog high performance Stage 1 turbo was installed, along with work done to the fuel pump, as well, allowing the big CAT to now push 567-hp to the ground! “My light weight is 49,000 lbs. and I can still average around 5 mpg with this set-up,” said Spencer, which is pretty impressive considering this truck is pushing nearly 40 years old now.
Painted in a beautiful black and charcoal gray Salem color scheme with an orange stripe, the truck is equipped with a Kenworth whale tail atop the Aerodyne sleeper. Sporting a 20” rolled bumper from Valley Chrome, painted 177-gallon fuel tanks, dual 5” pipes with mufflers and a Donaldson air cleaner, the frame has a custom aluminum deck plate, stainless steel Hogebuilt quarter fenders, and a HP 2000 APU, mounted on the passenger side frame.
“All my lights are glass watermelon style with LED bulbs,” said Spencer. The K100E will light up at night with eight 4” LEDs mounted in the mudflap light bars (four on each bracket), along with six down the back of the sleeper. Spencer said, “I recently added a second row of cab lights atop the Aerodyne sleeper, as well as new custom panels that I had made that are mounted under each side of the cab, which contain five lights each, then there are three more watermelon lights mounted to the back of the bumper, with lights at each end, as well.” Inspired by Adam Johnson and the way he had a bracket containing four watermelon lights on his W900L’s fuel tanks, Spencer said, “I recently added this same style of light bracket to the K100E’s fuel tanks, as well.”
Now calling Beavertown, Pennsylvania home, Spencer and his wife Bobbie have been together since 2001. Having received an invitation to the Kenworth Truck Show and Parade last year (2024), Spencer and Bobbie made the trip over with his classic K100E Aerodyne where it was a big hit with everyone who attended the parade through downtown Chillicothe, as well as the Kenworth Plant Family Day, where all the trucks were parked and on display. “I get stopped all the time and people ask questions and want to see the truck and take photographs of it. I get a lot of compliments from other movers who love my setup, as well,” said Spencer.
If there’s one thing Spencer is doing (besides his job), he’s definitely keeping the ‘cool factor’ of the trucks of the moving and storage industry in this day and age going with his classic Kenworth K100E Aerodyne. These household goods movers, like Spencer Mathis Jr., have unique trucks with very interesting setups, and this one is no exception. And, in my humble opinion, this cool “Bedbugger” combination is the epitome of what these rigs once were, and in this case, still is, and represents a Bedbugger’s life perfectly!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to my fellow 10-4 Magazine contributor Frank Strohmyer and Spencer Mathis Jr. himself for supplying some of the photos for this feature.