10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

COVER FEATURE - NOVEMBER 2007

TRUETT’S “HIGH COTTON”
TEXAS TRUCKER ENJOYS SOME SUCCESS
By Daniel J. Linss - Editor

There’s an old southern saying that says you’re having a good year if you’re walking in high cotton. Well, if that is true, Truett Novosad of Caldwell, Texas must be having a good year (or two), because he not only walks in high cotton but he drives in it, too. His super clean Peterbilt 379, which he calls “High Cotton” for obvious reasons, turns heads and wins trophies just about everywhere it goes – and for good reason. This hard-working heavy haul truck is truly spectacular.

Truett was born and raised in Caldwell, Texas – in fact, he still lives there today. Caldwell is located about 200 miles south of Dallas between Austin and Houston. He was named after the doctor that delivered him, Dr. Truett. Of course, that was the doctor’s last name, but that did not bother Truett’s mother – she liked the way the name sounded and borrowed it for her son’s first name, who is now 30 years old.

Truett’s father has been involved in trucking since 1979. When Truett was a little kid, barely tall enough to reach the pedals, he loved to park the trucks in their yard. When their drivers came into the yard, they would let Truett park their truck if he greased it – that was the deal. But he used to mess with the drivers, too. He’d park the trucks really close together, leaving only enough space for him to crawl out. When the drivers came in the next morning, they couldn’t even get into their trucks – so Truett, conveniently, had to pull them out, too.

Moving those trucks around the yard, he got pretty good at driving and backing. During the summer or when school was out for a vacation, Truett used to go out on the road with his uncle. On one particular trip, when Truett was in the 4th grade (around 9 years old), his uncle got sick and couldn’t drive. Truett, having to get back to school soon, took the wheel and drove from California to Texas, where his mom was waiting to pick him up. Back then, you had to be 18 years old to cross a state line in a truck, even as just a passenger, so every time they came up on a scale or a state line, his uncle would take over and Truett would climb back into the sleeper and hide in the closet. Now that’s how a real trucker learns to drive!

Truett graduated from high school and then went on to college, graduating from the University of Houston with a major in Sociology and a minor in Psychology in 2000. That’s right – this seasoned trucker can not only drive and turn a wrench, but he can also get inside your head and “figure you out” – now that’s dangerous! But even while Truett was slaving away at school, he always knew that he was going to drive a truck for the family business, which is called Novosad Enterprises.

The Novosad’s family business started out as a service company for the oil fields. In those days they hauled a lot of oil drilling equipment and machinery, focusing mainly on the maintenance side of things. Today, Novosad Enterprises is more involved on the construction end of the oil and railroad industries, mostly building pad sites for oil rigs and refurbishing railroad crossings throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. They also help clean up train derailments and do a lot of grading and paving. This work requires heavy equipment, so many of the rigs in their 25-truck fleet are heavy haulers that pull step-decks, extendable flatbeds and removable gooseneck trailers. And all of the trucks in the fleet are Peterbilts except for one. And Truett’s truck, the one on this month’s cover and centerfold (as well as on these pages) is no different – it’s just a little nicer than most of the others.

Truett’s 2001 truck is one of the oldest in the fleet. Powered by a Cat C-16 with 600 horsepower, an 18-speed transmission, 3.36 rears and a recently stretched frame, this rig is long and low. The truck has been a work in progress over the last few years, and it seems to look better at every show.

Earlier this year, Truett had Adrian at ACW Specialties in San Antonio, Texas, bag the front end and stretch the frame (from 280” to 324”) and add a fourth axle – a “pusher” axle, which allows Truett to carry 15,000 additional pounds of payload. The truck also features a 63” flattop sleeper, 10” pipes (all the way to the turbo), a custom headache rack built by Brunner’s in Joplin, Missouri, and fiberglass fenders all around. Up front, Truett installed a louvered grille, painted Double JJ brackets with dual round 359 lights, a 16” boltless drop visor (painted), and Cobalt Blue scallops, painted on the sides of the hood and on the tops of the rear fenders.

To help protect his 22” Valley Chrome bumper, Truett installed a flip up kit. At the push of a switch, he can raise the bumper up, significantly increasing his ground clearance when necessary. And that is probably quite often, as this baby regularly runs at just over six inches from the ground. When he drops the air bags it gets down to 3 inches from the ground, but when he flips up the bumper, he gets over ten inches of space to work with. That can come in handy from time to time.

Under the hood and under the truck is nice and clean, too. Truett’s frame is painted Gunmetal Metallic Grey and his engine is blue. Truett painted all of the “removable” engine components grey to accent the blue engine. Inside the cab, the dash panels have all been painted blue, as well as the steering wheel, and the dash is fitted with all the latest and greatest products from Rockwood. The cab also has a Rockwood hardwood floor and roof console. This truck has it all. And, believe it or not, she has over 600,000 miles showing on the odometer.

Truett attends at least four or five truck shows a year, including events in Kentucky, Florida, Missouri and Texas. He recently attended Billy Bob’s Texas Truck Roundup in Fort Worth, Texas and won Best of Show, which qualified him to compete in the Truck-Lite Trophy Series Championships, being held at the truck show in Louisville next year. Truett is hoping to get 1st place, which includes a check for $5,000. Back in May of this year, while attending a show in Joplin, Missouri, Truett got the rare opportunity to ride along with Les Shockley in his jet truck. “Shockwave” is a yellow and red Peterbilt conventional, fitted with three jet engines, that goes over 300 mph. When Truett looked down at the speedometer mounted on the dash in front of his seat, it read 329 mph! But as exciting as that must have been, Truett has an even bigger event coming very soon.

Truett’s wife Melissa is very pregnant. The couple is expecting their second daughter, Riley, on or around November 10th. Their first daughter, Randi, is already two and a half years old, and she is excited to have a baby sister. When you work in a “family” business, family really is everything. Truett wanted to thank his mom and dad (Pat and Tommy) for all of their help over the years and for allowing him to go a little crazy on his truck. He is very proud of what he has built. So today he walks (or should we say drives) in “High Cotton” – but very soon, he’ll be walking in high diapers. Enjoy it while you can, Truett! This will surely be your most exciting ride yet – and it has only just begun.