10-4 Magazine July 2024

32 10-4 Magazine / July 2024 Minnesota might be the land of 10,000 lakes, but what most of us like even more, is this state is home to plenty of big rides from all spectrums of the trucking industry. These trucks always catch our eye, whether on the road, at a show, or on social media. This story is about one uniquely colored 379 that caught my eye on Facebook, owned by Brandon Petersburg (30) of Petersburg Trucking LLC, who hauls hogs on the highways in the Midwest. Born and raised in Owatonna, MN, Brandon is the second generation in his family to drive. Brandon knew since he was old enough to push around toy semi trucks that he would be a trucker one day. His father taught him how to drive, and he ended up driving trucks around on the farms where he worked when he was younger. As soon as he turned 18, he obtained his CDL, and started hauling sweet corn with an end dump trailer. Over the next few years, Brandon went on to haul various commodities with various trailers including refrigerated, dump trucking, and pulling a tanker, delivering liquid feed for hog farms. He ended up moving to Colorado for three and a half years and in that time drove a dump truck, pulled a lowboy trailer, and a side dump trailer. He returned to Minnesota to drive a dump truck then got his first “big boy job” as he called it, experiencing employment with benefits like insurance and a 401k Plan. For that company he was hooking to doubles, and then, one day, he reached a point that it was time to try out hauling livestock. Around 2018 he went to work for Hansen Trucking out of Sargent, MN, where he would continue working for about two years. During that time, he met a young lady who he started dating on March 16, 2019, and it didn’t take him long to realize she was exactly who he wanted to run this crazy life with. So much so, he proposed to Janine at the school she teaches at on April 26, 2019, and they closed on their house in Brownsdale in July 2019. Brandon continued working for Hansen up until he started his own company in 2020. The first truck he bought was what some would call a learning lesson, because that truck nickeled and dimed him the whole short time he owned it. At the beginning of June 2022, Brandon came across a truck for sale on Facebook Marketplace and saved it right away. By the end of June, his current truck wasn’t acting right while in Kansas City, so he decided it was time to sell it. He messaged the owner of the truck he had saved on Marketplace and talked to him all the way back to the house in Minnesota. He ended up selling his truck for the exact amount that Katlin The Diesel Addict: By Stephanie Haas Powell was asking for the other truck. There was no love lost when he came to the decision to sell that truck, plus it was never his dream truck. On July 6, 2022, Brandon took his truck to the new owner in Oklahoma, flew back home, and then he and Janine took a flight to Texas and brought home what would become the truck you see pictured here. Three days after Brandon brought the truck home, he and his truck’s former owner Katlin spoke on the phone a lot and ended up becoming the best of friends. Unfortunately, just over five months later, in an effort to avoid hitting a car, Katlin ended up in an accident that took his life. His memory remains ingrained within the hearts of everyone that loved him. The pictured truck was originally gray and had been repainted by Katlin to a light blue with black fenders, which is the same blue it remains today. The truck HOGS & HIGHWAYS