The California Trucking Show was held on October 4-5, 2025, once again at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, CA – and it was a packed house! This event has been happening since 2016, and we have never missed a show. A convention-style event, there were almost 300 vendors, set up inside the main hall and now a secondary one, as well, along with about 40 trucks parked outside for the truck beauty contest. Space is limited outside, so all the trucks are just bobtails with no trailers. But what this event is really known for are the large crowds that fill the halls and the parking lot on both days of the show.
We arrived on Friday afternoon, October 3rd, to get our badges, parking passes, and set up our booth. This year, in addition to me and Miss Shannon, we brought our son Parker along, as well as my mother-in-law Polly to help run the booth. We also got additional help from our daughter Paige and her boyfriend Kenan, who came up from San Diego to lend a hand. Being that it was also a “10-4 Day” weekend (October 4th), our contributors and friends John and Kim Jaikes also came to the show on Saturday and hung out that night, helping celebrate the “holiday” with us. They even gave us a really neat “10-4 Day” gift, which was a custom quilt made from past 10-4 Magazine t-shirts and various pictures from the past. Thank you, guys.
We always joked about how the only official holiday we got here at 10-4 Magazine was “10-4 Day” each year, and that we were officially closed that day, but I don’t think that has ever really happened (we never close)! It certainly didn’t happen this year, because we were working our tails off at this show in Southern California all weekend. But that’s okay – if there is one thing we enjoy the most, it’s attending truck shows, so it wasn’t so bad. And this event had so many attendees walking the aisles, taking free magazines and posters, and buying swag and merch, we were so busy we could barely keep up.
This year, we were still promoting our upcoming Trucker Rodeo event, so we brought out some extra things and had some fun with it. Our newest skills competition added this year was the “Heavy Equipment Loading” contest, so we brought and displayed the “heavy equipment” that was to be used in that competition – two John Deere pedal tractors. Those little green and yellow tractors were very popular, and several people took pictures of their kids (or themselves) on them! We also dressed Kenan up in an inflatable cow costume and sent him and Parker out to walk the show, hand out fliers, and take pictures with fellow vendors and attendees. And, of course, a few “Betsy” cows made an appearance, too. It was a lot of fun.
Show hours were 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on both days of the truck show, and unlike most other shows, this one is held on Saturday and Sunday. Walking the halls, it was nice to see and visit with a few of our current advertisers and other business partners including Jim at Axle Surgeons, Toys 4 Trucks, DTIS, West Coast Foam, and Ash at Northgate Cargo Control, along with making some new friends and connections with the funny folks at Lot Lizards, Interstate Truck Sales, Little Sister’s Truck Wash, and Purple Wave Auction. It’s always nice to sit and visit in person with the people we do business with, because it doesn’t happen as often as you would think or as much as we would like.
Heading outside to take pictures and look at all the trucks, the weather was pretty amazing. With clear skies and temperatures in the low 80s, it was nice and warm, but not too hot (like last year when it was in the upper-90s). With about 40 bobtails parked in the lot next to the convention center, along with a few vendors, like our friends at Stay Loaded Apparel, there were several standout rigs. The beauty contest portion of the show was managed and run by our friend Laura at Truck Club Publishing and judged by one of our past cover truckers from way back when (January 2007) Frank Alarid – and he did a good job.
Some of the rigs that stood out for me included a turquoise Peterbilt 589 from Triways, a classic Kenworth K100 cabover parked by the ATHS booth, NRT’s always clean black Freightliner fleet trucks, Monzon & Son Enterprises’ blue and white flamed Peterbilts, and two sweet 389s – one painted maroon with pink pinstripes and one painted olive green with black and cream stripes. As usual, we at 10-4 Magazine sponsored and provided the People’s Choice trophy, which was again made by our friends at Rockwood Products. That award went to one of the nicest trucks on the lot – a red and cream Peterbilt 389 owned by Jose Rivas of R&M (he also won the Best Peterbilt award). The “Best of Show” trophy went to a white Pete 389 owned by Uriel Perez of Uri Transport.
Once the raffle prizes and awards were handed out on Sunday afternoon, it was time to pack up and head out. We would like to thank Oscar Medina and his entire crew for always taking great care of 10-4 Magazine at this truck show. As mentioned before, they also host and produce shows in Florida (February) and Texas (June) that are similar to this one, and we have heard nothing but good things about both of them. Next year’s California Trucking Show is scheduled for October 3-4, 2026, at the same location in Ontario, CA, and we are sure it will once again be a packed house. Come out next year and help us celebrate another “10-4 Day” at the show. We can’t wait to see you! And this year’s winners were…
BEST FREIGHTLINER:
Duane Smith of NRT.
BEST KENWORTH:
Marco of Triways.
BEST PETERBILT:
Jose Rivas of R&M.
BEST PAINT:
Samantha of Tarascou Trucking.
BEST METAL SHINE:
John Clark of Rebar Construction.
BEST INTERIOR:
Andres Gilbert of Jose Cordero Trucking.
BEST GRAPHICS:
Dante Velez of Sujeys.
BEST OLD SKOOL:
Tom Graham of Complete Trucking.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE:
Jose Rivas of R&M.
BEST OF SHOW:
Uriel Perez of Uri Transport.