Sweet’n Low

This month’s cool “creation” was built for Clay White (39) of Sweet Trucking LLC in Shandon, CA. Born and raised on the family farm, Clay was exposed to trucks at an early age. When the company that hauled all of their stuff went out of business, Clay jumped in a truck and never looked back. Clay has had a few trucks along the way, but none compare to his latest ride, which Clint built to be understated, not in-your-face fancy, but subtle, instead.

Shandon is a small farming community that sits between I-5 and the coast on Highway 41 in central California. Clay’s family homesteaded the property back in 1898 and is still there today. Although grapes are the predominant crop in the area now, Clay’s family still grows barley.

Clay is the son of the late Kenneth Clayton White, who passed away in 2007 after having a heart attack while driving. Miraculously, he was able to pull the truck he was driving to the side of the road and stop, leaving only one small scratch on the top corner of the trailer. His mom, Cyndra, is still around and is known to be an “extreme” quilter. Clay has a brother, Clint, who ranches and ropes. Two years ago, he earned the “All Around” title at the big rodeo in Salinas, CA – which was an amazing accomplishment.

Roping since he was five years old, Clay and his roping partner John Chaves recently got 4th place overall at the rodeo in Oklahoma City in March. John’s wife introduced Clay to her best friend, Melanie, and the two hit it off. Married since 2006, Clay and Melanie have an 8-month old son named Koyle. Clay had been running a Peterbilt 387 daycab truck for quite some time and decided that he wanted a little iron out front instead of plastic, so he contacted Clint.

When Clay and Clint finally got to talking about the truck and what Clay wanted, the two quickly realized that they were on to something good. The whole idea behind this rig was to build a truck that had a lot of extreme modifications that aren’t really noticeable at first glance. They wanted to build a truck that had a lot going on and was really cool, but very subtle, too. Early on they named the project “Sweet’N Low” and the name stuck – it’s even on the dash plaque.

The dark red truck is a 2013 Peterbilt 389 with a 48” flattop, a “moderate” wheel base, Low Low-Air suspension, a car-hauler front axle and several extra modifications. This month, instead of listing everything that was done to this truck, Clint thought it would be fun to just let you, the reader, try to find everything yourself.

Of course, as always, Clint did not do this project alone – he got a lot of help from Carl at Rockwood, Jesus “Moose” out in the shop, all of the guys in the parts department at KC Peterbilt, John at Stitched Upholstery, the guys at HushMat, Body Shop Manager Dave Freeman, and even Clay himself, along with his friend Rawley Duncan (the two guys came out and spent a week helping Clint with the truck in the middle of the project). Even Clint’s wife and kids got involved in this one, spending countless hours at the shop while Clint worked on the truck. Clint really does love his job, and its projects like this “Sweet’N Low” truck and great people like Clay White that fuels his fire and keeps his passion for trucks burning!