10-4 Magazine September 2022

Truck Show Report: By Eric Hill Raising money for kids in need is always a noble endeavor. The Dirty Business Truck Show is one that I enjoy attending every year, because it reminds me of a big neighborhood block party, but with trucks. This was the third year for this event, which was put on by the good folks at HD Equipment in Grand Mound, IA the weekend of June 24-25, 2022. I always look forward to a great show put on by Jay, Guthrie, Kelly, and the entire staff at HD Equipment. Once again, they did not disappoint! And this year, raising money for the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, IA made it even better. Many of the truck shows we attend raise money for an important charity. Of course, as participants or attendees, we love the beautiful trucks, tasty food, and excellent entertainment that is planned, but most important is the money raised for the charity. The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital is a wonderful and important organization dedicated to meeting the health care needs of children and families. As Iowa’s only comprehensive children’s hospital, it provides care for all age ranges of children. They provide services ranging from promoting wellness, to the care of general childhood illness, surgery, traumatic injuries, life-threatening and chronic illnesses, and developmental disabilities. As parents, grandparents, or immediate family members, we know the importance that an organization such as this provides for our children. Trucks began trickling into the show throughout the day on Thursday. The parking configuration was modified to improve traffic flow this year. This improvement made it easier for admiring the trucks, and for me, photographing them. The flow of trucks into the show increased on Friday, with a surge on Friday evening. The quality of the trucks at this year’s show was as good as the two previous shows. By Friday, the large parking lots of HD Equipment and C&J Trucking were pretty much filled up with beautiful trucks, both new and classic, and everything in between. When it was all said and done, there was a total of 90 trucks at the show representing the states of Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin. As expected, there were several outstanding trucks that I admired and photographed, but my favorite was the cabover Peterbilt that Jamie Williams from J&L Construction and his crew brought up from Missouri. It is their most recent build – a 1986 model 352 cabover painted viper red (no surprise) with medium gray stripes, and powered by a 3406 B-model Cat engine. It was built as a service truck for his fleet of trucks and heavy-duty equipment. The truck is fittingly named “Quick Fix” and Jamie gave me a detailed walk-around of the Pete. It is an impressive truck with every type of functionality imaginable that can be provided by a service truck, and I am sure it will receive a lot of attention at the shows this year. We experienced a mixed bag of weather throughout the weekend. The conditions were ideal on Thursday night and all day on Friday, with lots of sun, warm temperatures, and dry conditions. A front moved through the area Friday night and early Saturday morning and caused thunderstorms and rain that fell into mid-Saturday morning. Anywhere from 2-6 inches of rain was received in the area and there was some localized flooding. The good thing about the rain is it brought cooler temperatures and clouds throughout the day on Saturday. By Saturday evening, the clouds had cleared and we had a beautiful Midwest sunset over the farmlands of Iowa. By the time I left on late Sunday morning, there was bright sunshine, blue skies, a few white fluffy clouds, and a nice, cool breeze out of the northwest. The list of major contributors to the Stead Family Children’s Hospital was extensive and included Austin Zillmer, Bauer Built, B&J Electric, Big Strappers Apparel, C&J Trucking, Covanta, Crystal Creek Enterprises, D&D Trucking, Dynaflex, FBF Careers, 58 10-4 Magazine / September 2022 FOR A GOOD CAUSE