10-4 Magazine October 2020

32 10-4 Magazine / October 2020 Known as the highest card in a deck of playing cards, the ace of spades was also part of psychological warfare during the war in Vietnam, but neither of these descriptions represent why it appears on Dean Friday’s truck or why it has been integrated into part of Friday Trucking LLC. The meaning behind the background of the truck number comes from Dean’s love of the band Motorhead and their “Ace of Spades” song. He even named his rig “Lemmy” in honor of the band’s lead singer! Guttenberg, IA is rich with German influence, and named one of “America’s 20 prettiest towns” by Forbes – it is also home to Dean Friday and his good lookin’ Peterbilt 389. I love learning about history as I write my articles, but this city had me at Peterbilt. I saw this truck for the first time back in February at the 2020 Shine in the Pines truck show in Dublin, GA. I had the opportunity to briefly talk to the owner, Dean Friday, but not long enough to discuss the idea of shooting his truck for a feature. Being the third generation of his family in the trucking industry, most wouldn’t consider Dean as being a “normal” or traditional third generation trucker. Dean’s grandfather drove until he retired, and his father was a diesel mechanic throughout his early working years, before moving on to working at John Deere in machine maintenance. Dean had a love for trucks and was hooked in his teens when his grandfather brought a fuel tanker home to the farm, which was out in the country. He threw Dean into the truck, and then told him to fire it up and drive it around the yard. He also didn’t follow the normal routine of turning 18, getting his CDL, and then hitting the highway. Before any of that, he was in the Army from 1986 to 1991, where he specialized and The Diesel Addict: By Stephanie Haas was certified as a wrecker operator and diesel mechanic. This route was a solid avenue for making a good living at the time, and also put Dean in the position of following in his father’s footsteps. During his early years, he worked at several great trucking companies, and at each one he moved up the pay scale (and also moved closer to actually trucking with each new employer). Even though Dean’s most common job title was diesel mechanic, he also ACE OF SPADES