10-4 Magazine November 2024

30 10-4 Magazine / November 2024 Kansas, over the last several years, has become a yearly destination for me and I have met some amazing people with each visit. What began as a conversation with my friend Trevin Walck (May 2019 feature), turned into a scheduled trip to photograph a few trucks in that Kansas heat, including the pictured Kenworth W900L owned by Tony Lampe (59) out of Spearville, KS. Growing up in Spearville, it was around his grade school years that Tony realized he wanted to drive a truck. Living on a busy highway gave Tony the ability to watch plenty of trucks roll by, and he was just enamored with them. He didn’t have anyone in his family that drove truck, so one might say he grew up in the right place at the right time to catch the trucking bug. He and his wife Michelle met in their very early teenage years, which sounds like something you would only read about. He was 14 and she was 13 when they met in town by a tree by the old swimming pool. Fast forward a couple years, andTonywas working for a farmer, which happened to be Michelle’s sister’s husband. No one had taught him how to drive a truck, but that very farmer had Tony hop in a truck, and then told him to drive it into the next hay field. He was 16 at that point, and not long after that he went to get his chauffeur’s license. Just shy of turning 21, Tony and Michelle got married on May 3, 1986, but a year or so prior to that, Tony went out to get a real trucking job. The only way he was able to get this job for a trucking company out of Dodge City was the fact they did their math wrong and thought Tony was 29, when in fact, he was only 19. He hauled “fat cows” (ready for market/finished cattle) for this company for about three years. 1988 hit hard – literally – when he was driving a cabover loaded with cattle. Trucking during the night, he came up over a hill, and cattle were standing in the road. After the dust settled, life as he knew it changed. He was pretty banged up, including his knee popping out and turning 180 degrees, because he had slammed his foot so hard on the clutch pedal. At the accident scene, Tony couldn’t talk because the impact had knocked all his teeth out, and he also fractured his orbital socket. They used hand squeezes to communicate, and the EMTs attached patches to monitor him, as they instructed Tony how to start his own IV. Getting him out of the truck was going to take a while, but thankfully an oilfield truck came by that had a crane with a hook, and it was able to rip the top of the truck off. After several surgeries, recovery, and much remaining pain, Tony was back to driving again two years after the wreck. In 1992, after driving for a company for a couple years, Tony and his friend Tim Hayes partnered up to start DC Commodities and Tony bought a 1984 Kenworth W900B, hooked to a hopper bottom, to haul feed ingredients. In 1994, Kenworth came out with the Aerocab and Tony had to have one, so he bought a 1994 Kenworth T600. The Diesel Addict: By Stephanie Haas In 1996, Tony found out that KW was going to offer W900Ls with the Aerocab in 1997, so he went to Dodge City Kenworth and ordered one exactly how he wanted it, including the Studio sleeper, that came from the factory with a fold-out couch, a non-factory sunroof that was added during the build process, and the factory stripe pattern he wanted. Tony spent an hour looking at the blue color swatches, already knowing in his mind what colors he was looking for (the bottom blue is actually a Ford color that had to be shipped to the factory). Once complete, the KW was shipped to Wichita, KS, where Tony and Michelle drove to pick it up, because Tony couldn’t wait for it to get to Dodge City. They took delivery of this truck in June 1996 with a mere eight miles on the odometer, and when Tony initially laid eyes on the truck, it was love at first sight. That truck is the pictured 1997 Kenworth W900L seen here. Currently powered by a CAT C15 hooked to an 18-speed, 3.55 rears, and a 250-inch wheelbase, when ordered new, the truck had a 475-hp CAT with a 13-speed and 3.08 rears. He changed out the driveline because, at the time, he was running to Carlsbad, NM three times a week. With a speed limit of 75 mph, he was hindered with the old engine and wanted to be able to run 80. A week before photographing the truck, Tony’s nephew Dustin Lampe installed a new flywheel with an easy clutch pedal. The truck also sports 6-inch Lincoln Chrome stacks, WTI fenders, a Jones Performance hood, and an interior that was customized by Tony himself. You’ll find this truck regularly hooked to a 2014 Wilson 44’ hopper bottom, which THAT KANSAS HEAT