Some might have considered it to have been \u201cthe weekend of love\u201d because Valentine\u2019s Day was on Friday, but the 3rd annual Florida Trucking Show was held in the Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Saturday and Sunday, February 15-16, 2025, and I would call it the weekend for the love of trucks. The stars aligned and it worked out that we were able to attend the show (in the car with no trucks) on Sunday and we had a bit of an adventure getting to the convention center. The GPS took us through the port and, thankfully, the lady guard let us through and directed us to the street we needed to take to get where we were going (I hate GPS).<\/p>ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder
Outside, there were cruise ships docked everywhere, but inside the big convention center, there were trucks and vendors proudly on display. Registration for your free ticket is pretty easy, and there are people there to help if you need them. Once inside, the packed vendor area was well laid out, with aisles of truck information. There were 220 vendors that participated in this year\u2019s show. Sunday afternoon the aisles were filled with people who looked like they were enjoying the show (I know we sure were). I have to mention the food, because I was very impressed at how reasonable the prices were and how good the food was. This is not usually the case in a big convention center!<\/p>
Heading to the back of the room, where the big iron was parked, this year Dominguez Iron Work in Miami, FL kindly took over the \u201cshow and shine\u201d part of the show. I think they knocked it out of the park, and the trucks they brought to display were phenomenal! The custom participant\u2019s trophies were each engraved with the competitor\u2019s name on it. This was a touch I haven\u2019t seen at any other show, and it was a trophy I would have been proud to take home. Making custom truck parts is a big part of their business, and if this is a sample of their work, I would say he\u2019s well worth checking out.<\/p>
This was the first year that they judged trucks and had awards, and it was a success that they will continue next year. The show has begun to grow and is now getting attention outside of Florida, and the plan is to expand into another part of the convention center to allow more trucks to be on display and compete. They want to build this up to be one of the main truck shows in America, and I think they are on the right road to do just that. The folks who produce this event are the same ones who produce the Texas Trucking Show in Houston and the California Trucking Show in Ontario in October. 10-4 Magazine has participated in every Ontario show since its inception in 2015, and they always look forward to it because of its amazing foot traffic.<\/p>
Let\u2019s face it, right in the middle of February, it\u2019s still winter in many places. But in South Florida, the chances of beautiful and warmer weather are pretty high. And this show is held inside, so even if it were to rain, oh well. You can enjoy the camaraderie with the other drivers and share what you\u2019ve done to your truck with people attending the show \u2013 especially the kids. I\u2019ve always said, \u201cThere is nothing like little kids and big trucks.\u201d The look on their faces when they see a big shiny truck is always picture perfect, and I saw a lot of moms and dads taking pictures of their kids next to the shiny trucks. Some of these pictures will probably grace graduation tables of memories one day.<\/p>
After the awards we got to visit with a few of the competitors and they were very enlightening conversations. Like our friend Raiko, who we wrote about in the March Trucker Talk article, four of the men we talked to came here on a raft, learned English, worked hard, and now they work the beautiful trucks they built. We left there with a new outlook and respect for these men who came here for our freedoms, as they work hard and appreciate the freedoms our country has to offer. It makes us step back and really appreciate a little more what some of us might take for granted because we were lucky enough to be born here.<\/p>
The dates are not set yet for the 2026 show, but just as soon as they are announced, you may want to take time to visit Florida in February and celebrate a little \u201ctruck love\u201d that weekend. Until then, Oscar Medina and his crew will be hosting and would like to invite you to attend and\/or participate in the Texas Trucking Show at the NRG Center in Houston, TX on June 21-22, and the California Trucking Show at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, CA on October 4-5. 10-4 Magazine will be there \u2013 we hope you are, too!<\/p>
EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> Special thanks to Oscar Medina and his crew for some of the photos used in this show report!<\/p> And the 2025 winners were:<\/p> LOWEST TRUCK:<\/strong> American Truck Parts \u2013 Yuri Diaz.<\/p> BEST ENGINEERING (SPECIALIZED):<\/strong> Alpine Towing.<\/p> BEST ANTIQUE:<\/strong> Daley & Wanzer \u2013 Herb Fleck.<\/p> BEST PAINT:<\/strong> La Caridad Extreme Body Works \u2013 Alexander Verdayes.<\/p> BEST INTERIOR:<\/strong> Matrix \u2013 Florida\u2019s Finest.<\/p> BEST ENGINE:<\/strong> Cachi\u2019s Transport \u2013 Yoanny Rodriguez.<\/p> BEST LIGHTS:<\/strong> Phantom \u2013 Chima Auto Trucks.<\/p> BEST CHROME:<\/strong> La Caridad Extreme Body Works \u2013 Alexander Verdayes.<\/p> BEST DETAILING:<\/strong> RGT Logistics \u2013 Raiko Graveran.<\/p> DOMINGUEZ CHOICE:<\/strong> Phantom \u2013 Chima Auto Trucks.<\/p> PEOPLE\u2019S CHOICE:<\/strong> The Goose \u2013 Daniel and Phyllis Snow.<\/p> BEST OF SHOW:<\/strong> Cachi\u2019s Transport \u2013 Yoanny Rodriguez.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some might have considered it to have been \u201cthe weekend of love\u201d because Valentine\u2019s Day was on Friday, but the 3rd annual Florida Trucking Show was held in the Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Saturday and Sunday, February 15-16, 2025, and I would call it the weekend for the love of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":46873,"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":22015,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-show-reports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46705","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46874,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46705\/revisions\/46874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}