This month\u2019s cool creation is not just one truck \u2013 it is many \u2013 but all of them were built for Mr. Kevin North (49) of KND Trucking in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Looking at the pictures, you can clearly see two things \u2013 Kevin likes them nice, and he likes them blue. Over the years he has ordered many different models, many different styles, and many different colors \u2013 well, many various shades of blue and\/or two-tone combinations of blue \u2013 but all of them are top-notch rides, for sure.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
Growing up, Kevin\u2019s grandpa was a diesel mechanic, but Kevin\u2019s love of trucking and having nice stuff came from his dad. Kevin is the eldest of two children from Ed and Gloria North, who have been married for 55 years. Ed started driving trucks while in the military, and then worked for multiple companies over the years after that, before retiring from the Teamsters. Kevin remembers that any chance he could, he would try to spend it with his dad \u2013 his dad trucked and was gone a lot \u2013 so when he came home, Kevin wanted to be around him as much as possible.<\/p>\n
Going out on the road with his dad whenever he could, Kevin occasionally got to steer the truck, and at age 14 his dad let him drive the rig in a warehouse parking lot. When he was 18, Kevin got the opportunity to drive the truck while dad was sleeping, being sure to wake him up before the scales, so they wouldn\u2019t get in any trouble. Kevin\u2019s mom didn\u2019t really want him to follow in the footsteps of his father, but by then it was way too late for Kevin.<\/p>\n
After his high school graduation in 1984, Kevin went to Hawaii on a Mission trip from 1985 until 1987. This trip was a very memorable experience for Kevin, and he learned a lot about different cultures, nationalities, and thoughts and ideas from many different walks of life. He met a lot of cool people, too. After returning from the Missionary trip, he headed to college to study accounting. While there, he met his future wife and got a job. Shortly thereafter, he opted to drop out of college, pursue his dream in trucking, and marry his wife, after only nine short months of knowing her.<\/p>\n
Knowing that trucking can keep you away from some family life, Kevin tried to stay close to home \u2013 he got a job working at Yellow Freight on the dock, then eventually moved up to pulling doubles and triples. The next step was a sleeper truck, but he opted out. He really wanted to drive the nicest truck he could find \u2013 he has always liked nice cars and trucks. Throughout his trucking career, Kevin has always tried to focus on the family first, and tried his hardest not to be gone for things like dance recitals and sporting events.<\/p>\n
His dad never had the opportunity to own his own truck, but it was always a dream of his, so Kevin really wanted to do that \u2013 for both himself and his father. In 2002, he got a wonderful opportunity from Jeff England at Pride Transport to lease-purchase one of Jeff\u2019s show trucks \u2013 a 2001 Peterbilt. His wife, Dianna, understanding that in order to get ahead they were going to have to improvise, pulled their girls out of school and home-schooled them on the road for a year so Kevin could get up and running. Kevin really enjoyed this time.<\/p>\n
Two years later, Kevin sold that cool Peterbilt back to Jeff and bought a used 2000 Kenworth to run closer to home. In trucking, you always have to be able to adapt and change with the opportunities that arise \u2013 not all good things last, and you have to be willing to make changes along the way to survive and\/or thrive. In 2009, Kevin bought a 2007 Peterbilt flattop, which he still has, and has been adding equipment on a regular basis ever since.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Kevin has ordered several trucks from Clint. After ordering a few Peterbilt 386s (aerodynamic trucks), he found out that Peterbilt was going to stop making them in flattops, so he ordered one of the last 2015 Pete 386s with a 48-inch flattop (photo #1). He later added a nice fuel-efficient 389 with a 70-inch high-roof and the full aerodynamic package (photo #2), as well as two 75th Anniversary limited edition 579\u2019s \u2013 the first one is #169 and it is two-tone blue (photo #4) and the second one, #246, is just solid dark blue (photo #5), but super-cool nonetheless.<\/p>\n
Last year, Kevin ordered a beautiful two-tone blue flattop Peterbilt 389 with all the bells and whistles and a ton of extra custom work (photo #3). Unfortunately, that truck did not last long. After maybe just nine months, one of Kevin\u2019s drivers rolled that truck into a ditch and completely destroyed it. To this day, the driver does not know exactly what happened, but he swears it was not his fault!<\/p>\n
KND Trucking is a family affair. Kevin takes care of the trucks, while his wife Dianna takes care of all the legal and paperwork parts of the business. Kevin\u2019s younger sister Sherrie is married to her husband, Sandy Hatch, who works in the office at KND Trucking, as well. After pulling tankers for many years, when the price of fuel recently fell, they switched everything over to reefers.<\/p>\n
Kevin and his wife Dianna will celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary this coming January. They have three children \u2013 Todd North (32), who is not married and works as a vehicle detailer; Samantha Steinson (26), who is married to Andrew (he is a driver at KND) \u2013 they have two daughters, Emma (3) and Ruby (8 months); and Ashley North (24), who is not married and is a pet groomer. Kevin\u2019s parents are both retired now, and everything has gone full circle. When Kevin was a kid, he liked to go riding with his dad, but now dad likes to go riding with Kevin.<\/p>\n
As you can see by the photos on these pages, Kevin\u2019s favorite color is blue \u2013 he likes his trucks to be nice… and blue. Currently, Clint is building Kevin\u2019s next new ride \u2013 a Peterbilt 388 low-pro custom daycab painted, you guessed it, two-tone blue. Kevin is hoping that Clint and his crew get this one finished up soon, but not too soon \u2013 this one might need a new driver and, possibly, something to do. Any takers or ideas? If so, get in contact with Kevin through Clint at Kansas City Peterbilt at (913) 484-7768. Like all successful trucking company owners, Kevin North is always looking for good, dedicated, \u201ctrue blue\u201d drivers \u2013 maybe that could be you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This month\u2019s cool creation is not just one truck \u2013 it is many \u2013 but all of them were built for Mr. Kevin North (49) of KND Trucking in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Looking at the pictures, you can clearly see two things \u2013 Kevin likes them nice, and he likes them blue. Over the years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8641,"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":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-clints-cool-creations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8657,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640\/revisions\/8657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}