52 10-4 Magazine / January 2026 The 4th annual Bobtail Apparel Truck Show (BATS) was once again held at the Dixon May Fairgrounds in Dixon, CA on October 17-19, 2025. This year’s event proudly featured “The Godfather” show truck – the same truck that pulls our show trailer – on all the show ads, swag, merch and badges, so our booth was blessed with “center stage” privileges at BATS 2025. Not that we don’t always get a nice location for our head-turning combo, but this year we got some extra special treatment thanks to “The Godfather” Maggini show truck (which was also featured on our cover way back in April 2002, but it looked completely different back then). But it is pretty cool that the truck that pulls our trailer to the local shows today also has some history with us – it also happens to be one of my favorite trucks... ever! Arriving at the fairgrounds Friday afternoon, October 17, we quickly got set up for the show’s 3:00 PM opening to the public. On hand to help us were Roger and Annette Ghidelli, who drove the truck and our show trailer to the show, and our resident digital manager John Testa, along with his girlfriend Julia, who we hadn’t seen in a while. Friday was not very busy, besides the show guys parking trucks, so we cut out early to go to our annual dinner at Bud’s Pub in downtown Dixon where their specialty (and my favorite) is an amazing blackened prime rib. Back at the show, Cadillac Rodeo played great live music on both Friday and Saturday night. With temperatures in the mid to upper 70s each day with clear blue skies, the weather was perfect for a fall truck show in California. With 181 trucks parked on the grass at the fairgrounds, the “celebrity” judges (Rod and Kevin Pickett and Steve “Gringo” Mitchell) had their hands full on Saturday, walking around with clipboards, judging all the trucks in the various classes. And there were plenty of nice rigs to contend for the trophies and specialty awards! Some of the trucks that stood out to us included some of the usual suspects like Silva Trucking (Best Fleet), North Coast Wine (Best Engine), Central Valley Transport (Best Lights), KT Charboneau Trucking (Best Antique), Hildebrand’s Truck Show Report: By Daniel J. Linss Black Market Express (Best Audio) and, of course, plenty of trucks from Lowrie Trucking. But, three that were parked right in front of our booth were lookin’ real good, as well. Those trucks included Andrew Wixom’s metallic gray and maroon 2019 heavy haul Peterbilt 389 and matching lowboy, which earned Best of Show, along with McAbee Hay Company’s green 2023 Peterbilt 389 and flatbed, and a clean white and red 2020 Peterbilt 389 hooked to a polished fuel tanker brought by Chris Nash. Looking straight at these trucks from our booth, we had a great view all weekend. Some other standouts at the show would include Doug Smith’s fleet of caution yellow and white dump trucks, CENTER STAGE
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