ALL FOR CHARITY

Jerry Kissinger’s Mack Superliner and Great Dane Superseal reefer combo a hit among kids

By Todd Dills

(Photos by Paul Hartley)

If you’re attending a charity show-truck event in the upper Midwest, chances are good you’ll run across Jerry Kissinger and his ’91 Mack Superliner, which has come a long way since he bought it in 1997.

Powered by an 800-hp, turbocharged E9 V8, the tractor was then a construction jobsite daycab, but it became a working project build for Kissinger between his regular dairy-product runs. He first stretched the frame to 331 inches. The stretch led to adding a used custom sleeper built by All-American out of Fort Worth, Texas. Kissinger paid $3,000 for the box, hung it, then journeyed to Indiana, where ICT outfitted the sleeper with everything but the kitchen sink and shower.

“Some things I guess we just have to do without,” says the Independent Operator Inc. small-fleet owner.

The layover at ICT found Kissinger strapped in the seats of roller coasters at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. It’s a pastime he enjoys almost as much as show-trucking for worthy causes.

One favorite is the Big Iron Classic in Minnesota, where the entry fee is a toy that a charitable organization distributes at Christmas; last year, Kissinger brought a pallet and a half full of gifts. Another is the Waupun Truck-N-Show, which benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin.

“As many shows as I can do for charity, I try to do,” he says.