12 10-4 Magazine / August 2026 of the day. Bob claimed, “He was my Saturday morning hero.” Yosemite Sam eventually became synonymous with Spooner and his Peterbilt for decades to come. Bob described the addition of his 36” sleeper, saying, “It was like being in hog heaven.” Bob then added, “It sort of spoiled me.” At that time, Bob Spooner’s Peterbilt, with its signature yellow paint and Yosemite Sam on the bow, were becoming well known around the trucking circles. Now fully invested in his professional driving career, people began to notice Bob. If “you are what you drive” then Bob Spooner took another step into him becoming a legendary American trucker in an era where very few pioneers existed. Bob had an excellent reputation that was growing with each year. Once Bob’s Peterbilt was customized to his then liking, he went right back to working the truck. When Bob showed up at Neptune Van Lines with his newly modified rig, which in the mid-1960’s was a head-turning Peterbilt, for certain, according to Spooner, “The company’s owner, Henry Kiershenbaughm, didn’t know who the hell I was – he didn’t recognize my truck!” Over the next few decades, Bob’s Pete would become his obsession. In early 1967, Bob was hired for a covert government haul. After the tragedy of the Apollo One launchpad fire that took the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, the burnt space capsule needed to be hauled to some select Military bases, and Bob Spooner was the truck driver chosen to perform the task. It would become the first of many classified hauls and other high-profile moves done by Bob Spooner. Each of those hauls was another step, leaving behind a trail of footprints – or tire tracks – that nobody else could follow. Bob was blazing a methodical path to becoming legendary without him even knowing it. Running his new-look truck for the rest of the 1960s as a twin-screw with a single bunk, Bob’s Peterbilt was originally powered by an N-Series Cummins (a Super 250), but Cummins had issues with the NH-250 series. Bob said the early 250s would break head bolts in the cold and his had given him some problems, so he replaced the 250 with a Cummins 335. He then replaced his original transmission, which was a 5+4, with a 13-speed. Bob ran this setup for many years. By the time 1970 arrived, Bob found himself in Indiana at Double Eagle, where he decided to spoil himself even further by replacing his 36” bunk for an unheard of 70” sleeper. According to Bob, his then new 70” sleeper was only the third one Double Eagle ever built. Bob recalled that he paid $5,000 for this sleeper. Adjusted to toady’s inflation, that would be about $43,000 now. With the addition of his fancy 70” sleeper, Bob took another huge leap in building his legendary status. Rolling into the 1970s with his signature yellow paint, humongous walk-in sleeper, and Yosemite Sam metaphorically shooting up the US Interstates as he led the way, Bob’s rig made the vast majority of truckers practically drool when they were passed by Bob in the Monfort lane or saw him cruise up to the fuel island in his striking Peterbilt with “SPOONER” painted in script on the doors. Bob was really starting to gain his stellar reputation as a great American trucker, and Spooner wasn’t hard to miss out on the highways and interstates. Becoming good friends with Mike Parkhurst, the editor and founder of Overdrive Magazine, Parkhurst was a trucker before he decided to become “The Voice of the American Trucker.” Overdrive was founded in 1961, the same year that Bob hit the road in his Peterbilt. Over the years, Bob was featured in Overdrive, as well as several other trucking publications. Bob treated everyone with respect and instantly won people over with his kind southern gentleman style. I think the term “never met a stranger” might have been coined after meeting Bob Spooner out on the highways and truck stops across the USA. Throughout the 70s, Bob thrived. Rolling as an independent trucker with a hot rod rig, diesel fuel was averaging about $.36 per gallon, and Spooner was running the lower 48, picking and choosing whatever he decided to haul. By the mid-70s, Bob was running a 475 Cummins with twin turbos, and his rig would perform as good as it looked. About this time, Bob began hauling for the trade show business and became the exclusive contract hauler for Snap On Tools and their endless expo displays. Further testament to Bob was that Snap On relationship lasted over 40 years! During that same time, Bob also hauled and set up the displays for Suzuki. Now, with a fleet of Peterbilt trucks, Spooner hauled all the giant inflatable displays that Suzuki used for their expos. His professional operations with major brands eventually led him into hauling for the music and entertainment side of trucking, and Bob did several tours with top artists like Merle Haggard, Stevie Wonder, and Waylon Jennings, to name a few. Each artist raved about Spooner, further galvanizing his “legendary” status. Near the end of the decade in 1979, Bob went back to Double Eagle and replaced his 70” sleeper with a monster 110” condo sleeper with a generator, shower, toilet, TV, refrigerator and all the creature comforts of home. Bob was always one step ahead on outfitting his 1961 Peterbilt to not only stay relevant, but to thumb the eyes of any other independent truckers on style points alone. Overdrive featured Bob’s new sleeper after it was completed. As Spooner headed into the 1980s, his rig was state-of-the-art but still retained much of its original 1961 charm – and Yosemite Sam was still eating bugs. During the early 80s, Bob was chosen to haul another government contract haul, and it involved space, just not in the form of a manned spacecraft like when he hauled the Apollo One capsule. Bob hauled the “Star Wars” anti-missile satellite defense system to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California! Bob said the space-weapon was 30’ long and 9’ high. That haul involved the military pulling Bob’s truck up a hill via cables in order to position the cargo for unload. Spooner hauled many high security loads for the military over his illustrious driving career.
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