COVER FEATURE - SEPTEMBER 2003
Last time we checked in with Dale Callen of San Marcos, California, he was spinning all over town in a bright yellow Peterbilt RV he and his family built. That was June 1995. It’s amazing how time flies. With a new “toy” to show off, Dale is one of the few who is gracing our cover for a second time. Now retired from trucking, Dale has found ample time to do what he likes best - restoring and playing with old trucks and attending antique truck shows across the country.
Dale’s latest (completed) project is the beautifully restored 1955 Kenworth on our cover this month. Being an “old school” trucker, Dale likes to keep his restores real. In regards to the KW, he did his absolute best to make it look as good (or better) than the day it rolled out of the factory in 1955. And we think he did.
Dale acquired the truck from a friend about five years ago. At that time, it had faded metallic blue paint and was in need of some TLC. It wasn’t in bad shape, but the fenders were a little wavy and, up close, it didn’t look that good. For the first two years, Dale took it to a few truck shows but didn’t do much with it. Once he decided it was time to fix the old truck up, Dale sent the KW to J.A. “Chuy” Vargas in Spring Valley, CA.
Chuy (pronounced Chewy) spent two years restoring the truck, working on it between other jobs and at night. He spent over 40 hours alone on just the front fenders, removing every bit of bondo that had been applied over the years and reshaping the metal to be as straight (or straighter) than it was when it was new. He did a fantastic job. The paint scheme was inspired by a Peterbilt conventional hay truck that Dale saw in 1952. Ever since then, Dale always said he would have a truck painted like that Pete. The paint scheme and colors used were common among trucks in the 1950s. Dale used no metallic paint and did his best to emulate that head-turning Pete he saw so long ago.
Dale is only the truck’s fourth owner. It was ordered new in 1955 by an outfit called Winkler Brothers Transportation out of San Andreas, California. They used it to pull powdered cement in the Northern California area for almost 35 years. Known for their sharp rigs, Winkler ordered the truck with chrome headlights, dual chrome air horns, polished aluminum 5-hand-hole wheels, and a fancy hood ornament. In its day, this rig was pretty tricked out.
The only items Dale added that weren’t stock for this truck were polished full fenders over the drive tires, a chrome front bumper that is just a little wider than the stock one it came with and an air-ride driver’s seat (strictly for comfort). Besides the modern driver’s seat, the interior was kept stock. With a minimum of gauges, mounted on a chrome dash panel, and the wiper switches mounted up on top of the dash in the front windows, the cab is very simple - like it was when it was new. Dale had all the upholstery redone in dark brown vinyl. All he needs to complete the interior is a dash fan (factory A/C back then was two windows that rolled down and a fan pointed at your face).
Dale got the opportunity to meet Ralph Winkler, son of one of the original Winkler Brothers, at a truck show near Sacramento, CA. Although Winkler Brothers shut down their trucking operation in 1990, Ralph still runs a repair facility out of the original Winkler shop. Dale met Ralph at his shop one day and got all the history on his truck.
The KW was #13 in a fleet of about 20 trucks, and originally had a 220 Cummins with a 5+3 transmission. In 1972, Ralph himself repowered the truck with a Small Cam 350 Cummins and switched out the twin sticks with a 13-speed. And that is the same drivetrain that it has today. In fact, it was in such good shape, mechanically, Dale didn’t have to do anything to the truck’s drivetrain. The truck is geared to cruise at 62 MPH and has always ran excellent. That fact helped the restore go a little faster (two years!) and saved Dale some money too.
Winkler “retired” the truck in the early 1980s. Later, they sold it to a guy who pulled a small drop-deck with a backhoe on it for a year or two. Then that guy sold it to Dale’s friend, and you know the rest of the story. Except for the couple of years that the truck pulled the backhoe, it pulled a powder train its entire life, so it was only fitting to hook it up to a modern set of polished Beall trailers for the photo shoot.
But this KW isn’t Dale’s only toy. Sitting around his yard in San Marcos, CA he still has the Pete RV, a 1955 Ford F100 pickup (that he bought new from Midway Ford on Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles), a 1955 Ford cab-over C800 (which he plans on restoring next year to haul his pickup around), a 1970 Kenworth converted into a one-ton pickup truck (which is almost finished), a custom pickup built from a 1995 Pete 379, a 1965 Pete conventional waiting for a restoration and a 1963 Pete cab-over that needs to be redone. It’s a good thing that Dale and his wife Anna own an RV storage yard - but is there any room left for customers?
Dale says as much as he enjoys owning and playing with his trucks, his two boys are the real instigators. They are the ones with all the wild ideas and boundless energy - Dad (Dale) has more or less become the guy with the checkbook. After a lifetime of driving trucks, Dale is happy to say that both of his boys have followed in his footsteps and have become truck drivers too. And Dale couldn’t be prouder.
Dale was born in Jerome, Idaho, and his neighbor was Roscoe Wagner (see April 2003 cover feature). In 1943, when Dale was eight years old, his parents moved to Southern California, and his dad got a job at California Milk Transport in Paramount. For 27 years, his father hauled milk from the dairies to the creameries, until his retirement.
Starting his own driving career in 1963, Dale drove for Texaco for about a year, then hauled cars for about six years, then, in 1970, moved to San Marcos, CA and began driving for Escondido Ready Mix. Dale was their eighth mixer driver at that time. Today, known as Superior Ready Mix, the huge company currently has about 400 drivers. Dale drove a mixer for 15 years, and then a transfer for 14 years. A few years ago, in 1999, he retired. Both of his sons, Phil and Paul are transfer drivers for Superior. Phil has already been there for twelve years and Paul for nine. The Callen’s are a true trucking family.
And when getting ready for a truck show, everyone helps out, including Dale’s son-in-law Ron. As a proud and active member of the San Diego Chapter of the American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) since 1989, Dale goes to a lot of antique truck shows. It seems there is some kind of a show, or barbecue, or charity event, or meeting or something, every weekend. Dale truly enjoys going to these various events, with all his toys, and talking with all the other “old truck nuts”.
At most of the antique truck shows, there is no judging, no competition and no trophies are handed out - they all just get together and swap parts and tell stories and have a good time (isn’t that the way all truck shows should be). Dale is very excited about the upcoming ATHS National Show and Convention, being held at the California Speedway on May 27-29, 2004. This year’s national event, held in Syracuse, NY had over 1,000 trucks! They hope to match (or beat) that number in Fontana. If you love trucks, old or new, you won’t want to miss this monumental event.
When he’s not playing with his real trucks, Dale enjoys playing with toy trucks, boasting a collection of over 300 die-cast cars, trucks and trailers. The models fill an entire room at the Callen residence.
Dale is very proud of the fact that his old Kenworth, with somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 million miles on it, is good enough to make the cover of the magazine - he was so excited when we told him, and couldn’t wait to get a copy in his hands. Dale may be “old school” but you know that one day, everything old becomes new again, and his 1955 KW certainly lives up to that statement. Keeping it real is more than just a catch phrase for Dale Callen - it’s a way of life!
~ 10-4 would like to thank Stan Holtzman for providing us with all the fantastic photos for this month’s cover feature. Also, special thanks go out to Larry Morales, a driver with Superior Ready Mix who spent countless hours getting the trailers polished and ready for the photo shoot. The pictures were taken a few months back at various batch plants in and around Corona, CA.