10-4 Magazine November 2024

64 10-4 Magazine / November 2024 In the last couple of years, I’ve met some amazing individuals within the trucking industry who all love trucks and have amazing stories. Guys like Jay Van Kampen, Jerry Linander, Dave Schroyer, and Dave Robinson, along with amazing women like Susie De Ridder and Kate Whiting to name a few, and I’m proud to call them all friends. But this past June, thanks to Dave Robinson, I had the opportunity to meet and take a fun ride with one of the most humble and truly good guys you’ll ever meet in the trucking industry, DanClary, owner of Chillicothe, Ohio based Clary Trucking, Inc. If you know me (or my story or have met me), you know I have a vision impairment, and while it’s only about 300 miles from Newburgh, Indiana, to Chillicothe, Ohio, it’s not exactly easy to get there from here for someone like me who is unable to drive anymore. So, with the help of Dave Robinson, a plan came together so I could attend the 2024 Kenworth Truck Show. Knowing that Clary Trucking has trucks running back and forth on a daily basis from Louisville and delivering to Kenworth’s plant in Chillicothe, Dave asked me, “How far do you live from Louisville?” After I told him that I’m only about 100 miles from there, he said, “Okay, let me work on this and I’ll get back to you.” Not long after that conversation my phone rang. “Hi, is this Mark?” the voice asked, and then continued with, “This is Dan Clary from Clary Trucking. Dave Robinson said you need a ride up here to Chillicothe for the show.” Dan continued with, “Well, I need to get my dad’s Peterbilt out of the barn and knock the dust off it, so how about I meet you in Louisville and we can go for a ride?” Shocked to say the least, I honestly wasn’t expecting the owner of a multi-million dollar trucking company to call me, let alone offer to personally pick me up and give me a ride to the Kenworth factory truck show. The next day, Wednesday, June 12, the day before the Kenworth show was to kick off, with the help of my mom and my brother Joe, they gave me a ride over to the Dynacraft facility in Louisville to meet up with Dan, where he dropped an empty and was picking up a loaded trailer headed back to the Kenworth Chillicothe plant. Not in any hurry, Dan and I headed up I-71, cruising along, spending the next four hours on the ride back to Chillicothe getting to know each other Truckapedia: By Mark Harter and talking about everything from his family, business, sports, his love for fi shing, the current state of the trucking industry, and even politics. And, of course, we talked trucks. Dan told me about some of the unique and cool rigs he personally owns and has in his fleet. Some of these include a 1947 International KB8 wrecker that his grandfather bought when Clary Trucking was getting started, a 1981 Mack R-Model, and several milestone Kenworths related to the Chillicothe plant, including the 100,000th truck built there, a 1994 Kenworth T800 (the 250,000th truck built there), a 2002 Kenworth W900L, and a 2020 Kenworth W900L, which was the last W900L to roll off the Chillicothe assembly line. A FUN RIDE TO OHIO