10-4 Magazine / October 2025 13 bar made by Matt Riley, and 3” stainless cab and sleeper extensions. It also got a ton of LEDs with clear lenses, underglow lighting, polished one-piece mirror brackets, a painted Shox Box cover behind the sleeper, and a painted Merritt deck plate, with an inset connection box, made by Brad at Outlaw Garage Kustoms. Inside, much of the truck’s American Class interior is still relatively stock, however it did get a whitewashed wood floor, custom Bostrom low-back seats mounted on Iowa Customs bases to get them slid back for more legroom, an SCI steering wheel, a silver glitter shifter knob, and a few glass watermelon lights mounted under the dash. The rosewood door inserts and armrests (from Rockwood) were added by John when he owned it, but Josh upgraded the stereo to a flip-down screen system with (2) 10” JL Audio subs and several smaller speakers from Infinity, along with a 1,000-watt amp. Under the hood, the original 475-hp CAT C15 “Bridge” motor was rebuilt to be a “tuned” 550-hp CAT 6NZ. Currently, there is nothing fancy done to the engine, but Josh plans to eventually paint the motor metallic silver with black accents and add polished air intake tubes. Josh also had all the original pinstripes, door logos, and the family ranch brand, along with both his dad’s name and Josh Roberts Trucking, hand-painted back on the truck, but made to look old and a bit faded, to match the rest of the truck. The trailer is a 2015 East Conestoga with a Quick Draw tarpaulin system. The entire chassis and side rails were polished out by DS Wheel Polishing in Yakima, WA. There are also polished stainless boxes between the spread axles, a custom stainless panel, made by Matt Riley, in front of the front suspension, and plenty of lights (this trailer was mostly built for shows). The big question is always, “Where did the name Girdy come from?” Well, I asked the same question, and Josh’s dad John said that he used to call his mother-in-law “Girdy” (probably not an endearing nickname), and he also always said to the kids, when he wanted them to pick up the pace of their work or get moving faster, “Come on Gravel Girdy, let’s go!” From that, somehow, all of John’s trucks became Girdy. Along with Girdy 3 and Josh’s first truck, the brown and cream one, he has a few other well known rigs in his fleet. One of those is a very popular 2007 Peterbilt 379 that, like Josh’s other truck, was originally built by Clint Moore and featured in one of his first articles with us back in February 2007, titled, “This One Actually Got Too Low!” Back then, the truck was blacked-out, including the wheels, and had a red frame. The truck ended up being repainted a grey color and our friend Jeff Houts from Oregon (and past cover trucker) owned it for a while. Josh always loved this truck, so when he got the opportunity to buy it, he jumped at the chance. He also owns an old 2017 RoadWorks show truck (they built one each year), which was originally ordered by Clint Moore, that is blue with white stripes. These days, the company hauls a lot of steel and other types of flatbed freight, along with some fruit, too. Running all over the United States (except the upper northeast), they also haul into Canada from time to time. Half of their trailers are Conestoga setups (a covered flatbed where the entire top slides open) and the other half are curtain vans (a flatbed with a fixed top and just the sides open), but they also have a few multi-axle “maxi” setups, as well. Married to his wife Emily for the past ten years, the couple has two young daughters – Mia (7) and Jade (6). Emily was a nurse before having kids, but she stopped working for a while. Now that both girls are heading off to school, she is getting ready to rejoin the workforce. Josh also has an older brother named Ryan (42) who drives for the company, and when these two guys have time, they enjoy collecting, buying and sometimes building diecast truck models (Josh says he has about 500 of them). Josh’s parents, John and Ellen, have been married for 50 years, and the family hopes dad’s health will improve so he can be around for a lot longer.
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