This month’s truck was ordered for our friends Steve and Michele Moss of Jack C. Moss Trucking in Lannon, WI. Over the years, Steve has been featured in a few of my articles, and his 1952 “Iron Nose” Peterbilt was featured on the cover of the magazine back in December 2011. Steve and his wife Michele bought the trucking business 12 years ago from Steve’s mom and dad. Mom stayed on board until a grandbaby showed up three years ago, and at that point, she said, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
When they purchased the company they were running 11 trucks and have now grown to 21 licensed trucks (not including toys). They were able to do this because of their wonderful employees and customers that keep them busy. Steve and Michele have two girls, with the oldest, MacKenzie, who is almost 18 and getting close to graduating and going off to school to study sports medicine in Florida, and their youngest, Breanna (14), who enjoys swimming and doing archery with her dad. Steve and Michele enjoy their work, but their heart is with their kids.
This brings me to my thoughts for this month. Growing up, my dad had a hand painted sign on his old pickup tailgate that said, “Silly, TRUX are for kids” along with a painted Trix Bunny, from the popular cereal, next to it. This picture and that saying has stayed with me my whole life, and when I see an opportunity to get kids involved, that’s where my heart is, as well.
While hanging out together at the unveiling event of the 589 in May 2023, which brought out some of the nicest Peterbilts in the country, Steve and I were talking and we both felt like we could make one of these new trucks cool one day. So, we both decided, with trucks (and just like in life), you gotta keep moving forward. Over the next few years, we discussed options, including the model 567 versus the 589 and so on, but when it came time to order a truck, Steve decided the model 589 would be the best for them.
For this unit, they had already decided the driver who would be piloting it, Jonathan Loomis, who has a son named Grayson, that really enjoys trucks. This is Jonathan’s first new truck he would get to drive, and he requested that it have a standup sleeper, with a second bed, which wasn’t Steve’s (or my) first choice. We discussed doing a flat cab standup like we had done before on the 379 and 389s and then sat down with our Body Shop Manager Buddy Crow to discuss various options on how to achieve this. In the end, we decided to order it as a flat top and change the roof cap on the sleeper.
Knowing that it would be pulling a black dry van or curtain trailer, the truck needed to be black. Steve wanted to surprise our friend Jacob Gunderson, who works for him, and also takes great pictures and produces the “Class and Chrome” truck calendar. Jacob has a Toyota GR86 that he loves that is a bright blue color, so I reached out to my friend at Axalta to try to come up with a matching color for the chassis, which I thought we did pretty good. Steve was able to locate a good used standup sleeper we could use for the top, and then we got with our friends at Vanderhaag Salvage to get the stuff for the second bed. Once the truck made it to Kansas City, Mike was given the job of getting it dialed in, which wasn’t an easy task.
Mike installed a 20” Texas bumper, extra grill bars from Rockwood, 12 Ga. breather panels, and a custom visor from Storm with One 11 Weldshop. He then installed dump valves on the steer axle, hid the DEF tank, and added cab and sleeper skirts from Storm, as well. After Bill in the shop got the sleeper all dialed in, Jimmy and the paint crew got all the parts sprayed for us in black or blue. Bub built a couple hidden battery boxes off some sloppy sketches I made, then Mike hid those under a painted Merritt deck plate with polished rails (done by Cody). He also added six load lights to the back of the sleeper, stainless Hogebuilt half fenders on I-29 brackets, and a Jim Crain light bar on the back.
Wanting to stay cool in the summer and not have the frame space messed up, Steve and I opted for a Bergstrom NITE system, which Tyler volunteered to help get it placed neatly and out of sight. When Steve and Jonathan came to pick it up, they brought Grayson. It was nice to meet him finally and see firsthand his joy and approval. I feel like the kids are where it’s at – if we don’t involve the younger generations in our passions and hobbies, they will eventually fade away. I encourage us all to do what we can to keep kids interested in cool trucks and trucking – even if it’s a 589. Things always change, but we just need to keep moving forward.
Steve and I really like the way this one turned out, and credit goes to Mike, Tyler, and the entire crew at Geis Dealer Group for making our ideas a reality. I also wanted to thank Steve and Michele for their business, friendship, and allowing us to work on this build for them. And, when people ask who this one is built for, I just want to say, “Silly, it’s for the kids!”