Truck Show Report: By Daniel J. Linss As the summer sun came blazing down in February, we weren’t sure if we were seeing a desert mirage or just hallucinating in the heat! With record high temps for February at the “Diesels in the Desert” show in Chandler, AZ on February 27-28, 2026, our brains were baking. Hosted once again by the National Hot Rod Diesel Association (NHRDA) and Pickett Custom Trucks at Firebird Motorsports Park, the show seemed to grow again with more diesel pickups drag racing and doing burnouts, more big rigs, more vendors, and more spectators – this was no mirage! Last year the show was held in mid-March and much of it was rained out. Also, being just a couple weeks prior to the big trucking convention in Louisville, KY, the show promoters decided to move the date forward a few weeks to the end of February. I’m sure they thought the weather might be nicer, too, and it was, but nobody expected temperatures in the upper-90s that early in the year. It caught a lot of folks off guard, as many were heard repeating the mantra, “It’s too soon!” But that didn’t stop people from coming out to show off their rides or just to enjoy some time with their “truck show family” for the first time in a while. We arrived in Phoenix after a short flight from central California on Friday in the late morning, and by the time we got our rental car, drove to Chandler, hit a supermarket for supplies, checked into our room and then met up with friends, we all ended up getting to the show together at about 4:00 PM. The drag racing began late Friday afternoon and continued into the evening. With Randy and Stacy Cole retiring and handing over the reins of the NHRDA after last season ended, there was a new crew running that part of the show and, from our standpoint, we didn’t see any issues and things seemed to run smoothly. Figuring we would have enough time to casually catch up with some friends on Friday afternoon before the light show began at dusk, that all changed – at least for me – when my camera slipped out of its tripod mount and fell to the pavement from about my shoulder height. In almost 30 years of doing photography work at truck shows and other places, I have NEVER dropped my equipment, and to see my workhorse system, including a big external flash, hit the ground was not how I envisioned my night going. I spent the next hour or so looking my gear over and taking test shots. Things seemed okay, so we went ahead and took all our night shots, along with talking with many friends. The next morning, in the hotel room, I decided to download the images and look at them on my laptop, just to make sure things were kosher, and at that point, I realized I had an issue. Many of the shots looked good and seemed okay, but others were not properly or evenly focused. Switching lenses solved the issue, so for the rest of the weekend, I used other ones, including a new one I had, and it worked flawlessly. After returning from Arizona, I sent the lens that fell back to Canon to be completely rebuilt – better to be safe than sorry! I got it back a few weeks later and all is right with the universe again!! Saturday morning, after scoping out some photo locations for a shoot we were scheduled to do the next morning, we arrived at the show around noon and were surprised to see how many more trucks had come in that morning. The count was around 200 big rigs, which were mostly parked in one long aisle, with trucks on each side, for the length of the dragstrip. When that space ran out, they started another row up above the main lot, which filled up quickly, as well. Some of the trucks were parked so close together, it was hard to get good pictures of them. Thankfully, the replacement lens that I had switched to was a new ultrawide zoom lens I had just acquired, which allowed me to have a lot more options and get the shots I needed. Walking around in the heat and constantly seeking shade spots for some temporary relief, there were so many cool trucks and fleets. Some of these included Dandee Dairy, that had at least 10 of their amazing trucks at the show, including their massive green and purple build for MATS, which wasn’t even completed, but sitting on a trailer for all to see their progress in person. This truck was featured on our April 2025 cover, but has since undergone a full rebuild. Jason and his crew smoked meat and cooked food all weekend for anyone who was hungry, but I am sorry to say I never made it over there to try 20 10-4 Magazine / April 2026 A DESERT MIRAGE?
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