60 10-4 Magazine / December 2025 The bad thing about the Guilty By Association Truck Show (GBATS) is it’s no longer an annual event. A few years ago, Bryan Martin at 4 State Trucks made the decision to change it from an annual event to every other year. However, the good news is the change has made it turn into a much bigger, much better, and much more well-attended show. I attend a lot of truck shows and this one compares to the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in many ways. Obviously, MATS is different, being a trucking convention, but the quality of trucks, the nightly entertainment, the variety of scheduled activities for the entire event, along with the number of participants and attendees, makes it feel a lot like MATS in Louisville, KY. The community support from the city of Joplin and surrounding communities is unmatched. I’ve attended four GBATS shows, and this was the best one I’ve attended so far, for a variety of reasons. Bryan Martin said it best, “There’s no place like GBATS!” This year’s GBATS took place again at 4 State Trucks the weekend of September 25-27, 2025. At past GBATS, there is a full complement of 10-4 staff providing coverage for the show, but because of other truck shows occurring that weekend that also required 10-4 coverage, I was onsite in Joplin covering the 3-day event. The show unofficially started Wednesday morning, September 24, with the opening of the 4 State store and early truck registration. I arrived in Joplin on Wednesday afternoon and, after checking into my hotel, I stopped by 4 State to pick up my credentials, golf cart, and checkout the show field with early truck arrivals. The first folks I spotted was Jerry Linander, owner of the gorgeous black and red “No Fences” W900L KW, and Kate Morrow Whiting, owner of her “Cherry Pie” W900A. We had a great conversation while watching beautiful trucks roll in and admiring a beautiful Missouri sunset. I reported for duty early Thursday morning and got the day started by 8:00 AM. My routine for the first day of a truck show is to survey the entire show field, meet truck owners, talk to people, and mentally note the trucks that I’m interested in taking photos to include in the show report. There was no shortage of great trucks to choose from. The Thursday schedule was all-day truck registration and the 4 State store open for both truck show attendees and the public. There was a steady stream of trucks getting registered and parked on the show field. Two main events were scheduled for the evening – a Demolition Derby and Bobby Degonia in concert on the Joplin 44 Petro stage. I attended this concert, and Bobby is an accomplished musician from Joplin, MO, well-known for his Country and Alt Country music, and live performances. It was a great concert, with excellent music, and he had a dynamic stage presence! Friday began with another beautiful southern Missouri sunrise. As I was exiting I-44, the traffic was backed up on the exit ramp all the way up to the Truck Show Report: By Eric Hill entrance to 4 State and the show field. This was a preview of what would be a jam-packed weekend of beautiful trucks and many spectators. The major events on Friday included an FMCSA Q&A session, the first round of the Big Rig Burnouts, Trucker Olympics, Kids Zone activities, FMX Freestyle and Stunt Show, and a Truck & Tractor Pull on the dirt track, south of the 4 State store. The Friday events ended at 10:30 PM. Between my activities for taking photos and talking to many people, I made it a point to check-out the Big Rig Burnouts and Trucker Olympics. Both were exciting, entertaining, and very well attended. There’s nothing like big rigs burning up drive tires in front of a cheering crowd! After the burnouts, I resumed taking photos of trucks. The only lots that were not completely full of trucks was one north of 4 State Trucks and the Joplin 44 Petro lots. By the end of registration on Friday at noon, almost 700 trucks were parked and ready for the massive crowds to admire. Friday activities were topped off by the Motocross stunt show and Truck & NO PLACE LIKE GBATS
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