30 10-4 Magazine / December 2025 I’ve been to a lot of truck shows over the years. The first show I ever attended was the 1989 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville when I was 13 years old. Since that time, I’ve been to numerous shows throughout the country, both as an attendee and as a participant. From ATHS National Conventions to Walcott and Waupun, NAST shows back in the day, the ATCA Macungie Show and, in recent years, The Kenworth Truck Show and Parade (which is one of my personal favorites), along with many other big and small shows around the country. But this past September I had the opportunity to attend a completely different type of event – a tow show. Making the trip with my fellow trucking aficionado and photographer friend, Spencer Schmerheim, who has an affinity for tow trucks, we decided to check out the 2025 Midwest Regional Tow Show (MWTS). Upon arrival, we were quickly overwhelmed by largecars equipped with rotators and rollbacks. Held over three days (September 25-27) at the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio, the 47th edition of MWTS attracted tow companies, vendors and suppliers from Ohio and the surrounding states of West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, to name a few. Promoted by the Towing and Recovery Association of Ohio (TRAO), the MWTS returned to the Great Wolf Lodge for 2025 after spending two years at the Roberts Center in the neighboring town of Wilmington, Ohio, with TRAO Executive Director Bruce Bender telling me, “We received a lot of feedback from vendors, participants and attendees that they enjoyed the show to a larger extent Truckapedia: By Mark Harter when we had it here in Mason at the Great Wolf Lodge. This show is a family event, so it only made sense for us to come back to the Mason location this year, and so far everyone has been very excited to be back here.” In charge of the MWTS since 2018, Bruce continued, saying, “We have some of the best exhibitors and attendees. The MWTS is a family event, and we fully intend to keep it that way. The younger generations that have been coming to this show with their families are now coming of age and getting involved in their family’s towing businesses. They will be the ones to take it all over at some point.” Taking in what Bruce told me, I couldn’t agree more with what he said. Passion, pride and family were the common themes with nearly everyone we spoke to who had a tow truck on display at MWTS. “I have a hard time hiring good tow truck drivers, so I have to raise them instead,” Steve Judy of Mosby’s Towing and Transport, based in Campbellsburg, Kentucky, jokingly told me, referring to his three sons, Logan, Braden and Connor, who are all involved in the family business. Connor, ROTATORS & ROLLBACKS
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