10-4 Magazine / August 2026 11 infamous 40-mile corridor that climbed from Castaic, CA (just north of Los Angeles), over the Tejon Pass, and then dropped into California’s Central Valley floor just south of Bakersfield. Bob traveled what he called “the old road” – formerly the Ridge Route, which was a two-lane road that included a challenging group of tight curves and switchbacks. In the late 1950s, construction began on the new I-5 Interstate, which replaced the “old road” or Ridge Route. I-5 was part of the Highway Act, signed by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, which constructed the National Interstate System from coast-to-coast. Running a short linehaul from Los Angeles to Bakersfield three times per week, Bob was on a salary from Bob Illers at that time – he made about $80 per load. Bob ran that route for about a year until he was able to pay Bob Illers back for his down payment loan on his Peterbilt, but what Bob was really looking forward to was running over the road (OTR). He found work as a contract hauler for LA-based Neptune Van Lines, which was located on Washington Street, near the LA Mack dealer. He got his first OTR trip with Neptune Van Lines when he ran from LA to New Rochelle, NY. At that time, Bob was running a 38’ van trailer (made by Brown Trailer). It was around that time that Bob had a battle to obtain his own authority. Beating out the large van line companies like Allied, Mayflower, and Red Ball, Bob eventually got his own authority. Always a man of conviction, after multiple cross-country runs, Bob soon secured a deal to haul for Picker X-Ray, IBM, and Xerox. He made two trips per month hauling from Binghamton, NY to San Jose, CA. Bob fell in love with being an independent trucker and the freedom, lifestyle, and financial stability it offered him. By this point, Bob knew that he would spend the rest of his life being a trucker. During that time, in the early to mid-1960s, Bob’s Peterbilt was a stock day cab with a single drive and twin stick transmission. Bob added a drome-plate to his chassis and would actually sleep outside with a sleeping bag on the frame of his Peterbilt! If you suggested to any of today’s truckers that they should sleep in a sleeping bag on the frame rails of their truck, I’d surmise that you’d be looking at a lot of blank expressions, if not attacked for the suggestion of such a thing. In 1965, Bob came across an opportunity to purchase a wrecked Allied Van Lines truck. He bought the wrecked truck and went to work on the first renovations or iterations of his ‘61 Pete. After stretching the chassis and adding a third axle, he installed a very civilized 36” sleeper box. Bob also commissioned the artistic talents of his mother, Frances, when he asked her to paint his radiator shutters with an eye-catching picture of Yosemite Sam, a popular cartoon character
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