Complaints come over the CB about high fuel prices, low pay and long hours. Texas owner-operator Drennon Durham’s response is lacquered across the rear window of his 2007 Peterbilt. One word say’s it all: Kwitcherbitchin. “Easy Money” is the 23-year-old entrepreneur’s CB handle, given to him by a fellow trucker in recognition of Durham’s success at such a young age…

Jersey isn’t the first place one would think of being a hotbed for customizing trucks. Gangsters ripping them off and hijacking their loads? Sure. But truck dealerships ripping a new rig apart and transforming what was once ordinary into an extraordinary work of rolling artisanship and craftsmanship? Fuhgetaboutit. That is unless you’re thinking pure Mayhem…

When the company Robert Ewing works for, Hi-Plains Leasing, bought a ’97 Mack previously owned by the United States Post Office, turning the truck into a show rig was one use he hadn’t envisioned for the box-bodied, snub-nosed “Gone Postal.” Other than a paint job, Ewing and Hi-Plains used the truck as purchased for nearly three years before taking it out of service, putting it into the shop and, ultimately, leading it onto the truck beauty show scene.

The Chrome Shop Mafia is notorious for converting big rigs with millions of miles under their wheels into head-turning show-stoppers. Their big rig artistry is evident across the country and well documented in both print and video. Freightliner, on the other hand, is well known for its forward thinking designs and innovations. The company was looking for a way to turn the spotlight on their Cascadias and Coronados. Now here’s a perfect match….

No matter how or where they’re used, owner-operators take pride in their rides. Take a look at these five tricked-out heavy haulers–customized for both looks and performance. All five of these off-road workhorses haul heavy loads over rough terrain, and all five have earned bragging rights at big league truck shows.

HOT-ROD TEXAS PETE
San Antonio big rig customizer’s 651st build, Project One, is one wild custom ride

It began as just a rough color pencil sketch and a short list of specifications/ideas scribbled on a notepad. Two years later San Antonio-based Texas Chrome Shop rolled its tricked-out, multi-hued hot-rod Peterbilt, Project 1, onto the carpet. A dream [...]

“Hot rodding has no limits.” This, the motto of Flaming River hot-rod shop, is epitomized in its latest revival: the transformation of this 1987 Pete 379 Flattop into the smokin’ hot gangsta rig known as Blackbird. Flaming River of Berea, Ohio, frequents hot-rod trade shows, showcasing its products and custom work, which is catered to early models of hot rod cars…

The crew from Outlaw Customs strode into the Overdrive’s Pride & Polish contest in Dallas last August on a mission. As Dead Man’s Hand, a 2001 Peterbilt 379, rolled into the show, the guys who built it – Andy and Alex Gobel, Nic Gillan and Jon Gill – hoped it would answer a pressing question: “How can we get people to talk about us?” Well, they found the answer….

Rick Kelley’s dramatic painting, “Coming Home,” which depicts a bald eagle flying over snow-capped mountains, so moved the Gryttrs they bought the rights to the image and added it to both sides of the cab of their newest truck – a Detroit Diesel DD15(tm) equipped-Freightliner Cascadia, otherwise known as “Baby Al.”

Sherry Martinez’s 1990 Peterbilt 379, affectionately known around Southern California as either The Mean Bitch or 666, is visually hell on wheels born from personal trials and tribulations. Martinez says her Pete, the first of three tricked-out trucks in the Mira Loma, Calif., based Jessica Martinez Trucking fleet, was designed to match the tough times that came with going independent. “Its looks reflect the hell me, my husband, and my family went through when we first got it,” says Martinez…

Nothing gets Mike Salinas’s adrenaline pumping faster than seeing a green-light flash on a Christmas tree and feeling 540 cubic-inches of blown Chevrolet, sitting inches ahead of his toes, punch him into the seat while it lifts the wheels of his 7.0 Pro nostalgia dragster skyward. The thrill of that seven-second quarter-mile, 200-mph blast is hard to beat. It’s also hard to beat his tow vehicle: a 1997 Peterbilt 379 extended hood that reflects both the colors and style of this Gilroy, California, National Hot Rod Association Hot Rod Heritage drag racer. Salinas’ hot-rod-style hauler, dubbed Slippery Pete, is an odds-on favorite to win every time it rolls into a racetrack or a truck show