COVER FEATURE - JULY 2003
After being retired and hidden away for over 13 years, Kurt Smistik’s old Freightliner show truck could probably still compete with the best of them. Many of you may remember Kurt’s truck, as it was a common sight at shows, on magazine covers and in truck calendars back in the 1980s. Amazingly, after all these years, the truck looks as good as the day he parked it. Semi-retired now, running a truck parking yard on his property in Livermore, California, Kurt replaced his trucking income with healthy earnings from his yard - and he’s basically just paid to sit at home now!
Growing up in the more rural areas around the San Francisco Bay area, Kurt’s father was involved in trucking, so Kurt grew up around trucks. At 20 years old, after securing a private loan from a family member, Kurt went down to the local Freightliner dealer and ordered his truck. Why a Freightliner? At the time, the local Peterbilt and Kenworth dealers weren’t willing to work with Kurt (nor showed this 20-year old kid much respect) so he went to Freightliner where, as he put it, “It was like Burger King - have it your way!”
The truck is a 1981 Freightliner (back then there were no models - just conventional or cabover) with every option offered. Looking at the truck today, it looks like a custom truck, but in reality it was ordered almost the way you see it today. Even the paint and striping was ordered from Freightliner’s custom paint book. Today’s show trucks are all going back to that “classic” look, which is almost bringing Kurt’s truck back in “style” (everything old is new again). From the flat top sleeper, to the headlights, to the heat shields around the stacks, this stuff is all coming back. That’s why it’s hard to believe that this truck has been sitting in Kurt’s shop for so long. And when he started it up to take it outside, it still purred like the day it was new.
The only thing that hasn’t (yet) made a comeback is Garfield, that lazy, lovable cartoon cat that loved sleeping and eating lasagna. Years ago, one of Kurt’s girlfriends noticed the similarities between Kurt and Garfield and began buying him stuffed Garfield cats. From there, it just grew. Kurt’s truck, which is named “Moving Violation” became more known as “The Garfield Truck” because of his Garfield murals than anything else.
The truck is powered by a Big Cam II Cummins engine, a 14-speed Spicer tranny (with tall gears for running fast) and a 255” wheelbase. Back then, Jake Brakes were just being introduced, and this truck was equipped with a “lollipop switch” on the floor, which activates the Jake by stepping on it (much like a high-beam floor switch). The exterior has a custom-built Merritt headboard and boxes, Panelite light bars (Kurt remembers when Panelite was just getting started), chrome air cleaners with cool air scoops, and just about everything else a show truck could have. The paint is a metallic root beer brown with tan, gold, orange and black accents. The frame rails are brown and were completely pin-striped, by hand, by a famous painter named Gordon Stefans out of Fremont, CA. Gordon also hand-painted all of Kurt’s lettering and all of his Garfield murals.
So at 21-years old, in a new truck, Kurt started working. For most of his 20 years in trucking, the majority of his work was centered around large construction sites in California’s Bay area. We’re talking about massive, billion dollar projects like freeways, sewage treatment plants, high-rise buildings, etc. Pulling flatbeds and drop-decks loaded with rebar, concrete forms, cranes, equipment and other building materials, Kurt could easily earn $600-$1,000 a day, and only burn $50 of fuel. And that was just working a regular 8 to 10 hour day.
Never one to sit still for long, Kurt began competing at the truck shows on the West Coast. He was very successful. Today, his shop and office are adorned with hundreds of trophies and plaques that he won at various shows across the West, back in the 1980s. He was also on the cover of many popular truck magazines of that day (American Trucker to name one) and featured on the Shell SuperRigs calendar. He pretty much won all you could win back then.
A confessed chrome-a-holic and clean freak, Kurt never drove a dirty truck. Anytime he found himself with a few minutes at a job site, he’d start cleaning the truck. The guys he worked with started calling him “Showtime” because he was always getting ready for a show. Once a week, he’d take a towel and clean the inside of his frame rails, he’d periodically polish the back of his steps and the inside of his wheels, wax the driveline, you name it. His truck always looked good, and the way he looked at it was that his truck was his rolling business card, so it should always look good. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression, so he always made sure to look his best and have a great attitude - no matter what had happened that day.
In 1990, after running the rig for ten years, he decided to replace the Freightliner with a smaller unit, as it was getting harder and harder to maneuver that big tractor around job sites. He bought a 1978 KW conventional (with a 1969 hood and cab) and proceeded to trick this truck out too, painting it brown and adding lots of chrome. He ran this KW until he parked it about two years ago. He also had built a 1979 International bobtail truck with a DT466 engine for running small LTL loads around town, which also matched the other two trucks and was equally fixed-up. This, too, was parked about two years ago when the truck parking yard he had built on his property could finally sustain him. He hasn’t had the heart to sell any of the trucks, so he just keeps them covered up in his shop. And they are still clean as a whistle (just a little bit dusty).
If you had told him 15 years ago that he would have three beautiful show-worthy trucks that he doesn’t even drive, he never would have believed you. Over the years, living on a 6-acre piece of land in Livermore, Kurt’s friends began asking if they could park their trucks in his yard too. One became two, two became three (and so on), and now his yard is almost full. It seems there is a high demand for safe, secure places to park trucks in areas near large cities. As the income from Kurt’s yard increased, he drove less, until two years ago, when he stopped driving all together. Today, he is paid to sit in his house and watch the yard. It sounds easy, and it is (basically), but Kurt is always busy. He prides himself in having a safe, clean yard, so he is always working outside, dealing with truckers, laying down gravel, or just keeping a watchful eye for anything out of the ordinary. And you better not get caught breaking Kurt’s 3 MPH speed limit, or you’ll get an earful of not-so-nice words.
His obsession with chrome has now extended to Harley Davidson motorcycles. He currently has three amazing bikes and spends a good deal of his time hanging out with his biker friends, the Henchman. All of his bikes are “dipped in chrome” and one has an outrageous purple paint job.
Living (somewhat) in the past, Kurt loves to reminisce about the “good old days” of trucking and truck shows. Back when he was attending shows, like the Truck-A-Rama at Sierra Sid’s in Sparks, Nevada, and the big show at the King 8 in Las Vegas, competitors were treated like royalty. And the camaraderie was much higher then - it still exists today but not like it was back then. Some of the popular names at the shows back then (most of which are still popular names at the shows today) included Bill Donohoe with his “Tootsie Roll” tanker, Bob Wilson and his “Ironsides” tractor and rolling cocktail bar (in his trailer), Bobby Blandino and his sharp cabover (which was featured on the cover of one of the first editions of 10-4 Magazine), and Gene & Hilda Smith’s “El Turbo” 1949 Pete, just to name a few. I’m sure if you asked any of these folks about the popular truckers of the day (back in 80s), Kurt’s name would undoubtedly come up.
Having never been married, Kurt has no kids - just a shop full of trucks and a fat dog named Reba, who helps him “guard” the yard. Future plans include building a show-quality water truck for his yard and, possibly, if the right buyer comes along, selling his old Freightliner (with matching trick-out flatbed) and the International bobtail. But Kurt wants to find the right “home” for his precious babies, so it may take some time to find the perfect buyer. If anyone out there is interested, give 10-4 a call and we’ll get you in touch with Kurt. Take it from us, his trucks are as perfect as an old truck can be.
Although a bit blunt and outspoken, Kurt is proud to say that he is an honest man that has never “screwed” anybody. “What comes around goes around,” said Kurt. If that is the case, we hope this look back and well-deserved recognition was fun and memorable for him. It was for us. It’s not healthy to live entirely in the past, but it’s important that we don’t forget about it either. The important things to remember are to work hard, respect others, maintain your equipment and have a good attitude. By following these principles, you too can find success in the trucking industry, as Kurt Smistik has. Now hurry up and get that truck back inside the shop - it looks like rain may be coming!