34 10-4 Magazine / April 2025 it rolled out of Kenworth’s Chillicothe plant in 1986 with a blue VIT diamond tuck interior, “Every piece of the interior upholstery has been dyed black and all the trim pieces were painted in charcoal gray,” Spencer said as he kept telling me about all the custom work he’s done to the Kenworth. “I had new covers made for the Vista windows and also had a custom privacy curtain made that covers the entire front windows and both the passenger and driver door windows,” explaining how it makes for more room at night in the truck when parked. The truck currently has around a million miles on it and still has all its original gauges, knobs and switches, but lots of new wiring and other dashboard components have been added. Black low back Bostrom Wide-Ride air-ride seats are now on both the driver and passenger side of the truck, then he went ‘old school’ with a classic white ivory steering wheel and a vintage shift knob. The Kenworth K100E will definitely rock, too! With a Kenwood head unit for tunes, along with eight speakers and four subwoofers from Rockford Fosgate installed, this setup really keeps Spencer entertained and enjoying his music as he’s rollin’ down the highway. As you can tell, Spencer is not one to leave things stock. Under the doghouse, the 3406B has been tuned with custom injectors and a Bully Dog high performance Stage 1 turbo was installed, along with work done to the fuel pump, as well, allowing the big CAT to now push 567-hp to the ground! “My light weight is 49,000 lbs. and I can still average around 5 mpg with this set-up,” said Spencer, which is pretty impressive considering this truck is pushing nearly 40 years old now. Painted in a beautiful black and charcoal gray Salem color scheme with an orange stripe, the truck is equipped with a Kenworth whale tail atop the Aerodyne sleeper. Sporting a 20” rolled bumper from Valley Chrome, painted 177-gallon fuel tanks, dual 5” pipes with mufflers and a Donaldson air cleaner, the frame has a custom aluminum deck plate, stainless steel Hogebuilt quarter fenders, and a HP 2000 APU, mounted on the passenger side frame. “All my lights are glass watermelon style with LED bulbs,” said Spencer. The K100E will light up at night with eight 4” LEDs mounted in the mudflap light bars (four on each bracket), along with six down the back of the sleeper. Spencer said, “I recently added a second row of cab lights atop the Aerodyne sleeper, as well as new custom panels that I had made that are mounted under each side of the cab, which contain five lights each, then there are three more watermelon lights mounted to the back of the bumper, with lights at each end, as well.” Inspired by Adam Johnson and the way he had a bracket containing four watermelon lights on his W900L’s fuel tanks, Spencer said, “I recently added this same style of light bracket to the K100E’s fuel tanks, as well.” Now calling Beavertown, PA home, Spencer and his wife Bobbie have been together since 2001. Having received an invitation to the Kenworth Truck Show and Parade last year (2024), Spencer and Bobbie made the trip over with his classic K100E Aerodyne where it was a big hit with everyone who attended the parade through downtown Chillicothe, as well as the Kenworth Plant Family Day, where all the trucks were parked and on display. “I get stopped all the time and people ask questions and want to see the truck and take photographs of it. I get a lot of compliments from other movers who love my setup, as well,” said Spencer. If there’s one thing Spencer is doing (besides his job), he’s definitely keeping the ‘cool factor’ of the trucks of the moving and storage industry in this day and age going with his classic Kenworth K100E Aerodyne. These household goods movers, like Spencer Mathis Jr., have unique trucks with very interesting setups, and this one is no exception. And, in my humble opinion, this cool “Bedbugger” combination is the epitome of what these rigs once were, and in this case, still is, and represents a Bedbugger’s life perfectly! n EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to my fellow 10-4 Magazine contributor Frank Strohmyer and Spencer Mathis Jr. himself for supplying some of the photos for this month’s Truckapedia feature.
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