10-4 Magazine August 2024

Truck Show Report: By Frank Strohmyer especially when seen in the LCD digital display font! Instead of just enjoying the show in typical fashion, she spent her time helping those in need and selling swag for BCA. After the show ended, she also gave several hundreds of dollars to a charity of Kenworth’s choice, which they gave to The United Way, that will support local families. Chris “Sundance” Kikelhan and his girlfriend Leaha brought out his 1956 Kenworth W925, painted a light violet purple color, which was featured on our May 2016 cover (Rolling the Dice). The ‘56 was pulling his 2005 Great Dane trailer, which is covered with a tribute mural to Smokey and the Bandit. Chris had brought out this trailer last year, but he pulled it out with another one of his cool rigs – the Bandit Rig – a black and gold extended hood 1981 W900A with a V8 Cat, featuring a gold leaf stripe. Charlie Bates Jr. brought a rare 1980 W900A “Gold Nugget” edition (#5). In fact, this truck is thought to be just 1 of 1! Supposedly, Kenworth built 200 of these Gold Nuggets, but all of them Last year Kenworth celebrated its 100th anniversary worldwide. This year KW hit another milestone – building trucks in Chillicothe, Ohio for 50 years. Being 50 miles south of Columbus, the plant in Chillicothe opened March 4, 1974, with the goal of increasing overall production. A day later, a W900 rolled off the assembly line. They started with 300 employees and today have grown to over 2,400 employees, working several different shifts. Nearly 800,000 trucks have been built in those 50 years. Early last year the plant produced its 750,000th truck, which was delivered to Heartland Express of North Liberty, IA. When Kenworth decided to build the plant in Chillicothe the country was in a recession and unemployment was high, so this plant brought good paying jobs to the area and was a lifeline for many in the community seeking better career opportunities. With investments over the years from Kenworth, the Chillicothe plant has become the largest facility throughout the world. The plant expanded to include paint, a robotic cab assembly system, a test facility, and more. The plant has built many different types of trucks over the years, including the W900A, W900B, W900L, along with the K100C and K100E cabover models, before moving toward the more aerodynamic models like the T600 and T660. Today, the plant mostly produces the T680, T880 and the W990 models, and recently added the T680E, which offers different power sources, including electricity. To celebrate Chillicothe’s 50th year, there was a T680E wrapped with black and white photos taken from the 100th anniversary parade the year before. They also included some important landmarks of downtown Chillicothe which included a picture of the entire plant on one side, a picture of the Chillicothe water tower, and a picture of the Welcome Center at the Kenworth plant. A nice anniversary logo was created that featured a border in the shape of the state of Ohio, the Kenworth logo, and a big “50” in the center. The truck also had the saying “Chillicothe Proud Since 1974” on the side. The pictures featured on this truck were taken last year by our friend Colby Williams of Fueled Photography. A special appearance of The Big Idaho Potato Truck and its “Tater Team” showed up in Chillicothe. This is a big red T680, pulling a double drop trailer, loaded with a huge potato. The truck and trailer are on their 12th cross-country journey, spreading the good word about Idaho Potatoes, creating fun memories for all who see them, and raising money and awareness for organizations like the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and other local charities in the areas they visit. Eva Knelsen, who was featured in our February 2019 edition (Pretty in Pink), showed up on Friday. She had “a long way to go and a short time to get there” in her Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) themed pink and white 2021 Kenworth W900L and matching trailer. Her truck number, 80085, is interesting, 32 10-4 Magazine / August 2024 CHILLICOTHE LOVES KW