Somewhere I read, \u201cWhen you\u2019re cool, the sun shines all the time,\u201d and for Mr. Bill Frampton, it was always sunny wherever he went, including the small dairy town of Artesia, California, where he was from. It was just a small friendly place, less than two square miles in size, but packed with local family-owned farms, dairies, diners, tool stores and residents that never hesitated to give you a \u201chow ya doin\u2019 wave\u201d as they drove past. This tiny town in sunny Southern California was home to many trucking legends \u2013 guys like Bill and one of his most respected friends (and ours), George Van Dyke, just to name two, who called Artesia home at one point.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
This month\u2019s Fog Line Rewind is about trucking icon Bill Frampton \u2013 a trend-setter and all-around nice guy who showed the rest of the country what \u201ccool\u201d was back in the 1970s and 1980s. Born right there in that little town of Artesia (located near the intersection of the 91 and 605 freeways next to the city of Cerritos) in 1941, Bill, along with his two older sisters, would become one surprise after another, and Artesia would never be the same.<\/p>\n
At the time, a local business called Artesia Ice was a very successful outfit, and Bill\u2019s father Harvey went to work for them long before Bill was even born. Going back even further, the city of Artesia might never have even existed if it wasn\u2019t for Bill\u2019s grandfather and his four brothers, who helped form the small community in the late 1800s!<\/p>\n
Harvey Frampton, Bill\u2019s dad, went to work for Artesia Ice in 1929, working the graveyard shift, doing everything from sweeping floors to loading trucks. Over the years, he worked his way up to the day positions around the warehouse, and because of his steadfast dedication and work ethic, Artesia Ice eventually put him into sales. Later, he moved into a management position, and then in 1966, Harvey got the opportunity to purchase Artesia Ice Company. Of course, he jumped at the chance, and this is where the Frampton name first really came to be known.<\/p>\n
Bill\u2019s dad Harvey was always a man that stood by his word and lived by it, so naturally Bill was raised the same way. Heck, Harvey wouldn\u2019t even let Bill go deep sea fishing as a youngster until he had practiced casting in the bed of a 1937 Ford pickup for weeks first. Through the years, Harvey instilled into Bill the idea that, \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna do something, do it right!\u201d And, to this day, Bill still lives by that philosophy.<\/p>\n
While Bill was still a teenager, Harvey made him the truck jockey out in the yard at the plant. Bill spent many days and nights maneuvering 1940s- and 50s-era Ford single axles pulling 28-foot trailers, along with an old GMC, around that plant every day, making sure to park all of them inside the warehouse every night. Harvey was adamant about Bill \u201cdoing it right\u201d \u2013 and, lucky for Harvey, he just happened to be raising the perfect son for mastering those truck moves.<\/p>\n
Naturally, by age 18, Bill was off and going head-on into the trucking world. Bill left Artesia Ice for several years, cutting his teeth driving tankers for California Ammonia Transport and \u2018slam bang\u2019 transfer units. One of his favorite wage jobs was hauling carrots for Maggio out of Indio, California, where he found four loads a week out of Salinas, before the freeways there now ever existed. With quite a bit of experience already, Bill returned to Artesia Ice in 1970, only this time to be an owner operator, hauling the ice.<\/p>\n
Hell-bent on having a cabover with a long wheelbase, Bill decided that it was time to stick it out there and step up. He and his dad, Harvey, went to look at a Freightliner cabover with great specs, but it just didn\u2019t quite fit the \u2018bill\u2019 (pun intended). The salesman that Bill was dealing with located a brand-new blue 1970 Peterbilt 359 day cab conventional with a 335 Cummins Small Cam and a 4+4, which Bill bought and immediately jumped right into. For the most part, Bill spent most of the hot summer months hauling ice around the local area, but sometimes he got to travel a bit, too. One memorable location was Mercury, Nevada \u2013 an atomic test site and home to many nuclear missile silos \u2013 where he delivered ice directly to the crews constructing the launch pads. Like when building Hoover Dam, the freshly-poured concrete required instant cooling, and a big load of Artesia ice was prefect for the job.<\/p>\n
As sweet as the \u201870 Pete was, Bill still dreamed of having that cabover with a long wheelbase. So, in 1974, he bought a brand-new beautiful two-tone brown Peterbilt 352 and then hit the road. To this day, that brown 352 is still Bill\u2019s most loved truck. From around 1974 on, running two trucks wasn\u2019t a problem for Bill. He hired a driver for the blue \u201870 and ran the cabover himself. If you ask Bill, he\u2019ll say, \u201cIt was a piece of cake. I went from two trailers and one license plate, to four trailers and two plates!\u201d These two trucks made their rounds, day and night, without fail.<\/p>\n
Being the father of two kids \u2013 a daughter and a son \u2013 Bill was also a father without fail. His son Mike, just like his dad, had big dreams and a lot of talent and energy, but not necessarily towards school. Realizing this, Bill took things into his own hands and made sure that every extra second that Mike had was spent right there with him in that \u201874 cabover Pete. Mike wasn\u2019t too happy about that, or so he said, but whatever it was that he was saying at that time, it\u2019s safe to say that Mike actually enjoyed the time spent with his dad \u2013 and he learned more in those few years than any school could have ever taught him.<\/p>\n
By the time 1978 rolled around, Bill\u2019s business was growing, and he needed another truck. Of course, it had to have some power, and it had to be a Peterbilt, so what else could it be other than a 359 extended hood, dressed-out in dark red Imron paint. This truck was spec\u2019d with a KT450 Cummins, but Bill immediately added an aftercooler and juiced it into a KTA600. This truck came factory with a \u2018wide mouth\u2019 grill and a slightly larger mesh opening in the nose piece and was equipped with a 36-inch factory sleeper. This girl was bad to the bone, right out of the box, and would receive the Frampton badge on her doors, along with the #9 on the air cleaners.<\/p>\n
Bill and his son Mike spent the majority of the late 1970s rollin\u2019 around together in that 359, as well as the brown cabover. But, by 1980, things got even busier and Bill had to add yet another truck \u2013 and another driver \u2013 Mike! Of course, Bill ordered another dark red Peterbilt 359 almost identical to his \u201878 (the \u201878 was later fitted with a 48-inch Double Eagle sleeper and the \u201880 got a 60-incher). By this time, Bill\u2019s fine fleet was starting to get recognized and respected from Nevada to Oregon, and from California to Washington, for its over-the-top eye appeal.<\/p>\n
One time, around 1982, Bill got a call from a truck shop in Oregon, and the mechanic there was wondering why one of Bill\u2019s drivers (who they called \u201cJoe Momma\u201d) was complaining about having a \u201clack of power\u201d in one of the red K-powered 359s. The mechanic asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s the deal with this guy? The truck is putting 580 horses to the ground!\u201d Needless to say, nothing was wrong with Joe or the truck \u2013 he was just a little spoiled when it came to power.<\/p>\n
Any real trucker worth his weight will remember those pressed-out 96-ft. wide trailers Bill had with the mural of the \u2018cool bear\u2019 sitting on an ice block painted on them, along with the words, \u201cWhen you\u2019re cool, the sun shines all the time.\u201d Highly polished wheels and white mud flaps were almost mandatory on Bill\u2019s rides, but the most noticeable part on any of his combos was what most guys would read on the swinging doors on the back of ALL of Bill\u2019s trailers \u2013 Harvey Frampton Trucking. Why Harvey and not Bill, you ask? Well, if you\u2019re ever lucky enough to meet Bill and ask him, he\u2019ll proudly tell you, \u201cHell, if it wasn\u2019t for my dad, I wouldn\u2019t be where I\u2019m at today.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the mid-80s, the Frampton fleet continued to grow, and Bill added a few more dark red 359s. By then, the \u2018Ice House\u2019 was well-established as the place to be for good times, nice iron and great truckers. Friends like Bryan and Gary Van Laar, Ronnie Nobach and so many others, from all over the country, would come rollin\u2019 in whenever they were in town. As a teenager, Kevin Van Hulzen would wander down there to help out, making the \u2018Ice House\u2019 basically a 24\/7 truck show. And, being that he, Harm Speerstra and several others founded the first Pomona \u2018Truckin for Charity\u2019 show in 1981, now known as Truckin\u2019 for Kids, Bill was no stranger to shows.<\/p>\n
By the time the 90s came around, the fleet was growing and changing quickly. A majority of Bill\u2019s trucks were becoming Peterbilt 379s, and most of them were now yellow with charcoal fenders, with the exception of one Pete 377, with a set-forward axle, ordered as low as the factory would build it (it was still dark red with black fenders, like the older trucks). Bill never thought he would ever let one of those in his yard, but when people told him that he couldn\u2019t make a 377 look good, Bill had to prove everyone wrong. But, this 377 didn\u2019t just make those folks eat their words, it surpassed what Bill thought was even possible with one of those types of trucks, especially back then, making that 377 yet another top-notch member of the now-famous Frampton fleet.<\/p>\n
Throughout the 90s, and up until 2002, Bill\u2019s sweet fleet boasted over 20 company trucks and over 30 sub-haulers, making Bill a very busy guy. Having a great family and trusted friends in his life, nothing ever felt like work to Bill. His drivers were the key \u2013 any time and any place they needed to be, his guys got it done (and still made time to juice their tires). Bill hired Kevin Van Hulzen the day Kevin got his license, in 1991, and then immediately sent him out with a load of ice. Best friends and drivers such as Art Bousema, Paul Lazano and many others, helped make Harvey Frampton Trucking one of the finest fleets our country has ever seen.<\/p>\n
In 2002, Bill decided to sell his company and retire, but to anybody that knows him, they know that \u201cretirement\u201d wasn\u2019t in Bill\u2019s vocabulary. Over the last 15 years, now at 77 years young, Bill has never slowed down. He still loves trucks the way he did as a kid, wheeling those Fords and GMCs around the ice house, and if you ask his friends, they will tell you that Bill still has the same energy.<\/p>\n
When asked if there was anyone in his life he would thank, he instantly said, \u201cMy dad.\u201d Bill, it\u2019s safe to say that your dad looks down on you from heaven every day, grinning, and filled with pride. After all, when you\u2019re cool, the sun shines all the time! Thank you, Bill and Mike Frampton, for letting us share your \u201cauthorized\u201d story, and thanks to Kevin Van Hulzen and Mike for letting us share all these amazing old pictures. Bill Frampton and his cool rigs set the standard for decades, and because of his influence and good reputation, trucks and trucking \u2013 on the west coast and beyond \u2013 will never be the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Somewhere I read, \u201cWhen you\u2019re cool, the sun shines all the time,\u201d and for Mr. Bill Frampton, it was always sunny wherever he went, including the small dairy town of Artesia, California, where he was from. It was just a small friendly place, less than two square miles in size, but packed with local family-owned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fog-line-rewind"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18799,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18718\/revisions\/18799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}