Truck Show Report: By Eric Hill The sophomore year, whether it’s high school, college, or a truck show, can be either really good or really bad! I recently attended the 2nd annual Badger State Truck’n Show, held at the Badger Steam & Gas Grounds the weekend of August 7-8, 2026, and the second year of this truck show was a huge success with more beautiful trucks, a greater variety of children’s activities, more attendees and vendors, free live music, great food, and an incredible light show. The location of the show was near Baraboo, Reedsburg, and Lake Delton, the gateway to the Wisconsin Dells. It’s a beautiful area in central Wisconsin with a mix of farms, forests, and rolling hills. The motto for this event was “Big Rigs, Big Hearts: Truck’n for a Cause,” and in addition to being a great truck show, the primary goal of this event was to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the St. Jude’s Research Hospital for Children in Wisconsin. The show was open to all types and sizes of trucks, including bobtails and combos, working and show class trucks, milk trucks, lumber trucks, straight trucks, and even pickups. There were two main categories – judged and display only. This was a competitive truck show with very clean and detailed, expertly customized, and straight up outstanding trucks, which made for a major challenge for the judging teams. All the trucks were judged by Saturday afternoon and the awards were presented from the stage on Saturday evening. Hosted by Riffey Transport, Kropf Transport, ZZ Transport, Bates Transport and Class & Chrome by JG Photography, along with support from over 65 very generous sponsors, the schedule for the weekend show was filled with activities. Thursday, the gates opened at noon for trucks to park and vendors and exhibitors to set up, but not for the public. Friday, the scheduled activities were registration and truck parking, gates open to the public, children and family activities, and food trucks. Free live music by “IV Play” was center stage, along with a beer garden, from 7:30 until 10:30 PM, while the light show and judging took place from dusk to midnight. The Friday night light show was very well attended by participants, attendees, and local community people. The show field was packed, with many people walking around and checking out the trucks, with their lights ablaze in the summer Wisconsin night. Saturday was the busiest day of the weekend with a full schedule of activities offered throughout the day and evening. The day started with the Big Rig Charity Breakfast from 7:00 to 10:00 AM that was open to the public, along with the final registration and truck parking, that went until 3:00 PM, and food trucks that were open all day until midnight. A live auction for placement positions in the Make-A-Wish Charity Convoy was held from 10:00 AM to noon, followed by staging at 1:00 PM, then departure at 1:30 PM. After the convoy, the trucks returned to the show field around 3:00 PM and got re-parked. Children and family activities, along with the judging of trucks, happened all day. Something new this year was a Charity Pig Roast. Open to all of the participants, attendees and the general public, this was one of the highlights of the weekend. The whole hog was smoked overnight and finished in time for the Saturday evening dinner. The meal was outstanding and the portions were plentiful! The awards presentation took place at 8:00 PM and was center stageontheshowfield. Lookingout over the show grounds from the stage during the ceremony, I was surprised at how well this part of the truck show was attended – it was a sea of people! The weather always plays a factor for Midwestern truck shows in the late summer month of August, and this year was no exception for the Badger State Truck’n Show. Thursday and Friday were sunny and relatively nice days, but severe thunderstorms were forecast for Saturday afternoon. Participants and vendors prepared for the worst but, fortunately, the major storm cell split and went north and south of the Reedsburg and Baraboo area. Thank goodness! We did experience light showers, but not enough to disrupt scheduled show activities or make the field messy. Along with we at 10-4 Magazine, many photographers and videographers provided extensive content, including day and night photos and videos, along with videos from drones, as well. Daily photo and video content was posted on the 10-4 Magazine Lounge and Badger State Truck’n Show social pages on Facebook and others. Many followers have viewed the content posted from this event, which hopefully will generate even more interest and buzz, and attract more attendees next year. 22 10-4 Magazine / October 2026 BADGER STATE FUN
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