10-4 Magazine October 2024

Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss truck, until he went out on his own and formed Emmons & Sons, LLC in 1995 – the same year his son Brandon was born. Shor tly after star ting his company, Donnie bought his next truck – a charcoal gray 1984 Kenwor th W900B with a 400 Cat. About that same time, his dad bought the 1992 Peterbilt with a Detroit mentioned previously. Raving about the mileage it got, he eventually convinced Donnie to get rid of the “B” and buy his next truck – a 1995 Kenwor th T600 with a Detroit. And his dad was right – the money he saved on fuel alone more than made the truck payment! Some people just like classic trucks better than the new ones. Truth be told, most probably like the classics better, unless they are all about technology and creature comfor ts. For those things, the newer trucks fit the bill, but for all the old school truckers out there that want simple, stylish, classically styled, and easy to work on trucks, then the older ones are for you. Such is the case for the Emmons family of Chesterfield, IL. Donnie Emmons (56) and his grown sons, Brandon (28) and Tyler (22), are all truckers clinging to the classics. One example of that is Brandon’s 1985 Kenwor th W900B, which he drives every day, but that is just one of the cool “classics” in the Emmons fleet. Growing up around trucks and trucking in Illinois, Brandon comes from a trucking family. His grandfather, Don Emmons, star ted trucking after returning home from the Vietnam War (he was in the Air Force for six years), and was a company driver for much of his driving career, mostly pulling reefers and flatbeds. It wasn’t until about 1996, shor tly after his son Donnie formed Emmons & Sons, that he bought his own truck – a 1992 Peterbilt with a Detroit. Married to Donnie’s mom Wanda since 1966, Don passed away in 2019 at 76 years old. Born in Alton, IL in 1968, Donnie Emmons loved going out on the road with his dad. For the last 14 or 15 years of his driving career, Donnie’s dad drove for Nelson Gwillim (our friend Mickey Gwillim’s grandpa), and Nelson always bought him cool trucks to drive. Donnie can remember going out in his dad’s Freightliner cabover, along with a cool B-model Kenwor th, that was painted gray with blue stripes, and was spec’d a lot like Brandon’s truck that you see here today (which is one of the reasons they bought it). After graduating high school, Donnie joined the Army and spent three years serving, getting out around 1990. At that point, he began driving a truck, but it didn’t last long. Unfor tunately, when Operation Deser t Storm began in 1991, the Army called him back and sent him to Iraq for about a year. Upon his return home in 1992, he went back to trucking as a company driver, and then bought his first truck the following year in 1993 – a 1990 Kenwor th T600 with a Detroit. Pulling a reefer, Donnie was leased to several different outfits over the next few years with this 10 10-4 Magazine / October 2024 CLINGING TO THE CLASSICS