This month\u2019s \u201ccreation\u201d was built for Alonzo Sykes Jr. of Montana Farms. But, Alonzo (37) is not from Montana \u2013 he lives in Aberdeen, Mississippi \u2013 and he doesn\u2019t own a farm \u2013 he hauls reefer freight! But we\u2019ll get into that later. Alonzo is a hustler, for sure, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t drive trucks, I hustle trucks, because if you don\u2019t hustle in this business, you won\u2019t make it.\u201d And that is true.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
Growing up in a small town in Mississippi, Alonzo is one of four children \u2013 and the only boy. Wanting to take care of his family, Alonzo\u2019s dad always had a lot of different jobs, but his favorite is at the New Life Missionary Baptist Church in Aberdeen, where he has been a preacher for the past 21 years (in addition to all of his other full-time jobs). Alonzo\u2019s mom Josephine also works, and together, with Alonzo\u2019s dad, they taught their children that you can have things, as long as you work for them.<\/p>\n
Like most of us, Alonzo liked trucks when he was growing up, and he had two uncles that were in the business. One of them gave him a ride to Chicago when he was about nine years old, and he fell in love with trucks on that trip. Alonzo graduated from high school and then did a year of college, but he really had no idea at the time what he wanted to do. That changed when a friend, Hurie Wilson, took Alonzo on a cattle haul.<\/p>\n
Alonzo got his CDL when he was 21 years old. His first job was with MS Carriers. He drove for them for 10 months, and then purchased his first truck \u2013 a 1996 Kenworth W900. Just six short months later, he added a second Kenworth with a driver. Two years went by, and then MS Carriers sold out to Swift. From there, he switched to American Transport for a few years and then to Aldean out of Chicago, hauling LTL freight.<\/p>\n
When the price of diesel fuel got outrageous, Alonzo sold his trucks and got a job with Robert Henderson, as a company driver, from 2006 to 2012. After that, he went to Volume Transportation from 2012 to 2014.<\/p>\n
Being a hard-working man of faith, Alonzo took a \u201cleap of faith\u201d in 2014 when he purchased another truck and started his own company called Montana Farms. He got the \u201cMontana\u201d from the movie Scarface, as in Tony Montana, and the \u201cFarms\u201d was chosen because most of the time it meant reefer freight \u2013 and that is what he wanted to haul. He currently owns seven trucks and has two people leased to him and, as they say, he\u2019s makin\u2019 things happen. \u201cYou don\u2019t get anywhere sitting still, you gotta move,\u201d says Alonzo.<\/p>\n
Wanting \u201csomething special\u201d but not quite sure what, Alonzo called Clint. After some discussions, and a whirlwind visit to the dealership, he opted for a 2016 \u201cPride and Class\u201d Peterbilt 389 in black. Powered by a 550 ISX hooked to an 18-speed trans and 3:36 rears, the truck was ordered with a 312-inch wheelbase that sits on a Low-Air suspension, as well as a big stand-up sleeper and an air-ride front axle.<\/p>\n
After the truck arrived, Tyler and the \u201cnight shift\u201d hid the urea tank and added Lincoln Chrome \u201cNext Level\u201d pipes. The body shop installed one of Clint\u2019s visors, five flush cab lights, a flush (painted) deck plate, Hogebuilt low-rider half-fenders on hidden brackets, and six load lights on the back of the sleeper (three on each side, like hot rod taillights). Then, low-ride seat bases were installed, a dump valve was added to the front axle, and Clint\u2019s dad chopped the air cleaner screens.<\/p>\n
Needing something nice to pull with his new ride, Alonzo ordered a new 2016 stainless 53\u2019 Great Dane Everest reefer with a 12-foot spread. The trailer has a lift axle, painted rails and back doors, a 100-gallon fuel tank, lights under the spread, and a TK unit with chrome grills and lights. The truck is sweet and the trailer is cool, but when hooked together, you have pure awesomeness!<\/p>\n
Alonzo has two children from a previous relationship \u2013 a daughter named Sabrina (20) and a son named Avance (9). He also has a 4-year-old daughter named Jayda. Alonzo\u2019s lady and his \u201cpartner in crime\u201d is Jessica. She is very involved in the business, and works as hard as Alonzo to make it a success. Together, they \u201chustle trucks\u201d to make it all work, because, as Alonzo says, \u201cYou got to grind to shine!\u201d And boy does he shine!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This month\u2019s \u201ccreation\u201d was built for Alonzo Sykes Jr. of Montana Farms. But, Alonzo (37) is not from Montana \u2013 he lives in Aberdeen, Mississippi \u2013 and he doesn\u2019t own a farm \u2013 he hauls reefer freight! But we\u2019ll get into that later. Alonzo is a hustler, for sure, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t drive trucks, I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9766,"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-9743","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\/9743","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=9743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9767,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9743\/revisions\/9767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}