surface irrigation products. The business was a success, and Wayne worked hard until he sold it and retired. He devoted the next 20 years of his life to the ministry, and then later on got into woodworking. At 91 years old now, he and “Uncle Don” (who is 94 and lives nearby) hang out a lot together, and I can only imagine the things these two have to talk about! In 1981, after hauling hay for a local outfit, Gary and a friend partnered up and bought a truck from Uncle Don – a blue and white 1966 Freightliner cabover truck with a 24-foot bed and a 24-foot pull trailer (which they later painted two-tone blue). Hauling hay at first, the two eventually got a “corn contract” from Green Giant and began hauling bulk sweet corn from the field to the factory for about three months in the fall. During this time, the truck ran 24/7, and the “Corn Campaign” as it was called locally, was a big deal. To do this, they would remove the hay bed from the truck and mount a live floor trailer bed on it, then hook to a 20-foot pup trailer with a live floor, as well. Back in those days, you had to be creative, so if you only had one truck and multiple types of hauls, you just switched out everything when needed. It was not uncommon for Gary to drop a sleeper on his truck and go long-haul trucking, as well. After about two years, Gary’s friend decided to move back to California, so they dissolved the partnership, with his friend getting the truck, and Gary getting the trailer. Purchasing a really cool 1976 Peterbilt 359 to replace the Freightliner, Gary continued doing the same thing, and Gary Amoth Trucking was officially started in 1983. The light green Peterbilt with a white stripe had a 1693 CAT under the short hood, and Gary just absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, this truck met an early demise and only lasted a little over a year. After it got wrecked, Gary found and bought the 1974 Kenworth W900A you see on the cover and centerfold this month (and on these pages) in 1984. Although it didn’t look like the truck you see here today, it was still really cool. When Gary first purchased the W900A, it had a short 228” wheelbase, a 475-hp 1693 CAT, a torsion bar suspension, and it was painted brown with thin white stripes. Over the years, the truck changed a lot, but in the beginning, it was Gary’s everyday driver. He figures he personally logged almost a million miles in that truck, and since then, other drivers brought that number closer to 2.5 million miles. The engine was rebuilt once, but after it blew up again, Gary replaced it with the 400-hp 3406B it still has in it today. At some point, the suspension was switched to a Reyco 4-spring system, and then later it was upgraded to a Peterbilt Low AirLeaf suspension, which it also still has today. The next truck Gary bought after the W900A was a yellow and black 1969 Kenworth W923 (he later painted it dark green), and then he bought a 1980 Kenworth W900A. This last truck was painted Viper red, and Gary really liked it, so he painted the ‘74 red to match. After that, until more recently, almost all his trucks were Viper red! In 1993, Gary traded the 1980 W900A for two 1990 Freightliner FLDs, and from there is when the company started to really grow. These first few trucks were the core of the company and the ones that built the solid foundation for the monumental growth of Gary Amoth Trucking over the next three decades. In the beginning, Gary did everything – he drove, dispatched, did maintenance, washed trucks, office work, and whatever else needed to be done. Until they built up to ten trucks, the entire company was operated out of a shop and small office space behind their house. In about 2001, they finally got a yard in nearby Filer, Idaho, and Gary hired his first maintenance guy. And the rest, as they say, is history! Around that same time, the 1974 Kenworth, which was still 10-4 Magazine / August 2025 11
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