Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss After working the 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM shift for about six months, Kevin then got another opportunity to start driving his “uncle” Bert’s (not his real uncle) 1975 long hood Kenworth W900A with a 300” wheelbase, a 1693TA CAT and a 13-speed – and he took it! Being young and energetic, he did not quit his other gig, and began working the 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM shift, too. At just 18 years old, Kevin was making good money and driving not one but two cool trucks, and, as he put it, “I thought I was the bee’s knees!” And he probably was. In 2006, after finally getting his CDL, Kevin started driving for his dad, who had just built a 1979 Extended Hood Peterbilt 359, which Kevin got to drive. The truck originally came with a V8 CAT, but Kevin and his dad swapped it out with a Detroit Silver 92. Kevin drove that truck for his dad until 2011, and then took a job at Piazza Not every trucker cares about the miles per gallon their truck gets. In fact, Kevin Young of G. Young & Son Trucking out of Waxahachie, TX says he’s lucky to get 4 MPG out of his 12V-71 Detroit-powered Freightliner cabover, which he runs every day. But Kevin is way more excited to see how many “smiles per gallon” he can get from this classic beauty when the true old school truckers hear him roll past. He has had grown men tear up when looking at his truck, complete with a set of Spicer boxes, which is reminiscent of what so many older drivers out there drove back in what was arguably the best decade of trucking – the 1980s. Not bad for a 39-year-old kid who was born and raised in Compton, CA. Kevin’s dad, Gilford “Beaver” Young (66), who also grew up in Compton, started hanging out in a truck yard across the street from where he played football, and at just 17 years old, he started learning how to wrench on trucks. Before long, he was going out with the drivers, and then he eventually got his CDL and started driving himself. At first, he drove for a bunch of different companies in and around the Los Angeles area, sometimes driving his own truck, and sometimes driving theirs as a company driver. In 1979, he started subhauling for a company called Keep On Trucking (KOT) based in Wilmington, CA, and 48 years later, he is still running for them (they are now known as MHX). Back then, like many truckers, Beaver’s truck of choice was a cabover, and he had a few of them over the years, along with some cool trucks with hoods, too. KOT almost exclusively ran Freightliner cabovers, so growing up around them, Kevin fell in love with those trucks at a very early age, and that love has caused him to own and operate several cabovers, too (his nickname is even Cabover Kev). At just 39 years old, Kevin is an old soul – he does not fit the mold of a middle-aged trucker at all. Learning how to work from his dad, Kevin started handing him tools, then went on to bigger jobs and polishing, which eventually led to full-on maintenance (he stabbed his first transmission at just 12 years old). As far back as he can remember, Kevin was going out in the truck with his dad. And aside from his love of football, trucking was all he ever wanted to do. And since the NFL didn’t call him, he ended up in a truck. Graduating high school in 2004, he made up an excuse and ditched his “Grad Night” date so he could go trucking with his dad. That night, he piloted his dad’s truck over the Grapevine and up to Fresno – and he loved it. After graduation, he spent three months on the road with his dad, and then in August of 2004, he got the opportunity to drive a 1983 Freightliner cabover with a big sleeper, a 400 Big Cam and a 10-speed, hauling lumber out of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. 10 10-4 Magazine / November 2025 SMILES PER GALLON
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