10-4 Magazine May 2023

not a good decision, but Richie liked it. He had a dedicated route, delivering to restaurants in the local area, three days a week. He enjoyed the relationships he formed with his customers and was making good money, so he was happy. Unfor tunately, when it came time to re-bid their routes, it did not go well for Richie and he lost many of his stops and his pay was decreased. So, after about two years, he left JB Hunt. Going to the MATS show almost every year since 1999, Richie had formed a friendship with Eddie and Patrick at Reinsfelder, a trucking company based in Zelienople, PA, near where he grew up. Hanging out with these guys at the show, they were always bugging him to come and work with them, even going so far as to tell him they’d order a new truck just for him. Well, when he decided to leave JB Hunt, he called Eddie and said, “I’m ready to work with you guys!” They sent Richie a ticket to fly back to Pennsylvania, and sent a truck to get their stuff. Richie star ted at Reinsfelder in January of 2015 and has been there ever since. Pulling a flatbed was new to Richie, and it took him a little time to learn how to tarp, strap, and chain down awkward-shaped loads, but thankfully he had some great mentors and teachers to get him up to speed pretty fast. Driving one of their other trucks for about a month until his new one came in, the folks at Reinsfelder stuck to their word and let Richie order a brand-new 2014 Peterbilt 389. Fitted with a flattop sleeper, the truck was a Fitzgerald glider kit, equipped with a 525 Detroit that was hooked to a 13-speed and 3.55 rears, and had a 275” wheelbase. Richie is known to like things clean and bright, and this all-white Peterbilt was cer tainly no exception. Allowing him to customize the truck like he wanted, Richie lowered the front end by de-arching the springs, installed a custom 20” American Eagle bumper, a Clint Moore stainless visor (which he had wrapped in white but left a one-inch strip of shiny stainless showing around the lower edge), a painted white deck plate, and painted white half fenders. Inside, a friend of Richie’s installed a painted white aluminum floor, and then painted the lower por tions of his dash white, as well. Richie is a fanatic when it comes to keeping his interior clean and he always wears “slides” (slip-on sandals) when driving. These slides are always color coordinated (white in this case) and they never leave the driver’s seat area – he doesn’t go outside with them or even back into the sleeper! Everyone teased him about his slides, and it became a “thing” he was known for, so he still has matching (turquoise) slides today in his latest truck. And, speaking of his next truck, after that 2014 glider star ted having engine issues, the company let Richie order another new truck, and that is the one you see here on these pages and on our cover and centerfold this month. When we first met Richie, at the Top Gun Largecar Shootout show in Rantoul, IL in 2017, he was still driving the all-white truck, and we got a few fun pictures of him and the truck (and his white slides). Although we had just met him, he is the kind of guy that immediately makes you feel like you’ve known each other forever. Ordering this latest truck in February of 2021, which was just white with a turquoise frame, it arrived bare-boned in July of that year, and then spent another eight months being built and customized at various shops. Spending its first month or two at Hunter Peterbilt in Butler, PA getting the frame repainted because it got damaged in shipment, they also installed the cab lights, a RoadWorks visor, and the blacked-out headlights from United Pacific. From there, it went to Morocco Welding in Somerset, PA where Kevin Montgomery did a bunch of work to it. While at Morocco Welding for about three months, the truck was fitted with a step box on the driver’s side to match the DPF box on the passenger side, and over-inflates and leveling valves were added to both the front and rear