The Walcott Trucker’s Jamboree is the biggest event of the
year here at the Iowa 80 Truckstop. I, of course, didn’t know that. In fact, I
didn’t even know that the Jamboree existed. I knew that the Iowa 80 Truckstop
was the largest in the world, and that the Iowa 80 Kitchen had an awesome
buffet, but I didn’t know what the Jamboree was. That is, until I was hired as
a summer intern for Iowa80.com. So, it is safe to say that I did not know what
to expect, but whatever I expected was nothing close to reality. The Walcott
Trucker’s Jamboree wasn’t just big, it was gigantic.
A few of the contestants from the Super Truck Beauty Contest, 2019.
Not only was the Jamboree a gigantic event, it was the also the 40th anniversary this year, making it bigger and better than ever. There were a ton of trucks registered in the Super Truck Beauty Contest, awesome antique trucks from the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, five super talented musical guests, as well some of the best food around. This was definitely the biggest event I had ever been to, and I certainly wasn’t prepared.
Keith William’s “USA” won Best Overall Theme.
On the first day of the Jamboree, I was requested to go and
interview drivers and take pictures before I would go to the Iowa80.com booth. I
had naively walked out without sunscreen and only one bottle of water; I had
just made a rookie mistake. While out in the scalding heat, dehydrated, and almost
catching fire from the sun’s dangerous UV rays, I met some of the most
interesting people with great trucks and great stories.
A lucky gold prize winner from the Iowa80.com booth; he won a $1,600 bumper!
I heard about a love-story between two truckers who had met
at the Jamboree a few years ago. I talked to a humble truck driver who was the
most honored to be on the cover of one of our catalog issues. I got to talk to
ambitious contestants about their trucks’ themes. I was able to create amazing
content for our social media, as well as meet new people and grow closer with
my colleagues. I even got to pet some cute dogs.
Owner Look Alike and Best Dressed winners: Cathy Sherman and LJ.
That night I was stationed at the Iowa80.com booth, where
truckers and children could spin our prize wheel to win some awesome gifts.
While I was there for the final two hours of my shift, I really enjoyed
interacting with drivers, seeing their reactions, and getting to give out
prizes to the kids. Plus, I could hear the band from the big vendor tent.
The GIANT crowd from the Sawyer Brown concert on Friday.
The following two days I had just as much fun. I worked in the booth some more and took some great pictures for our all of our social media. I was chauffeured around in a golf cart, had an awesome hot dog, and was offered wonderful experience in the work force. More so than the awesome perks of working the Jamboree, I was able to create a lasting memory of the bright show lights, the shiny chrome, and the dedicated employees of the Iowa 80 Group that I was lucky enough to be a member of this summer.
Lights at Night competition on Thursday night.
So, if you haven’t been to the Jamboree, I strongly, strongly encourage you to come next year. There is great food and amazing music; there are wicked cool trucks and really remarkable people. But please, please don’t forget sunscreen.
Click HERE for our Facebook album on the Walcott Trucker’s Jamboree!
When your headlights aren’t aimed properly, you know it! It’s tough to see when driving at night or you are consistently getting flashed by oncoming traffic because you are inadvertently blinding other drivers. Many factors come into play with your headlight alignment such as an accident, wear on suspension components over time, or you just installed new XK GLOW LED bulbs. Whatever the case may be, checking and adjusting your headlight alignment will be beneficial to both you and everyone else out there on the road.
Let’s
get started!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Phillips head screwdriver or Torx wrench
Masking tape
Tape Measure
Level ground
Wall with 25ft of clearance
ALIGNING PROCESS
Check your owner’s manual to find the location of the vertical and horizontal headlight adjustment screws. These screws are typically long and feed into gears that control the headlight adjustment. They are usually marked L > R for horizontal adjustment and U > D for vertical adjustment.
Find a level surface in front of a garage door or wall with a minimum of 25ft of space. We will use the 25ft mark as a reference so you will need enough space for your vehicle to fit behind that line. Using the tape measure, measure 25ft back from the wall and mark that line using masking tape.
Park the vehicle against the wall and turn on the low beam headlights. Mark the center of each headlight and the horizontal line of each headlight. These should be level with one another.
Back vehicle up in a straight line until the headlights are at the previously taped 25ft mark.
Adjust horizontal aim as necessary. Center of headlights should remain at the taped center line. Use the horizontal adjustment screw to adjust for the center line.
Adjust
vertical aim. The horizontal line on the headlights should drop 1-2 inches down
from the marked lines when parked 25ft back from the wall. Use the vertical
adjustment screw to adjust the height of the headlights as necessary.
That’s all there is too it. Go for a drive and enjoy your properly aimed headlights!
Truck drivers choose XK Glow brand headlight bulbs because they are reliable to light up the road night after night with superior light output and durability. They’re the highest quality LED bulbs on the market and are proven to withstand rough terrain, harsh vibration, and intensive use. Our top selling XK Glow Elite LED Headlight Bulbs provide a customized look with practical function that owner-operators say are the best LED headlight bulbs they have ever used! Shop for the best headlight bulbs for semi trucks at iowa80.com today.
Truck drivers love to see a decked out show truck. Other drivers can see the creativity, as well as the off-the-cuff ideas we use. Then they take that inspiration home with them and use it to make their own ride a little more custom. At TRUX Accessories we strive to be more creative with each build, and hopefully inspire the next guy to be a little more original with his customization. At TRUX we live by the mantra “BE ORIGINAL.” You’ll see this emblazoned across our packaging, our website, our business cards, and every show truck we build; Code Blue is no exception.
Code Blue started as a working truck from Pennsylvania, owned by my friend Scott George. He hauled gravel and other dry bulk products with a dump trailer all over the Pennsylvanian mountains, as well as up and down the east coast. Scott had decided to retire his flat top and get something with a little more space. I just knew that a flat top curved glass W900L would be the perfect follow up to our successful Purple Haze, which was the truck we built in 2018.
Code Blue and Purple Haze
After taking the truck back to Arkansas to begin the low rider transformation on Code Blue, we decided to add 10″ of frame to maximize our wheelbase at 272″ (we had to stay under 31’ total length for the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville). We also decided to install late model flex air suspension to make it a better ride. Since we had the truck cut in half and taken apart, we decided to go ahead and add the unibilt sleeper ring, so that the seats could move back enough to make room for the big guy!
Interior of Code Blue
We knew all along that we would be doing a low rider theme to follow up on the success of Purple Haze, but we certainly didn’t want to just change the color and copy the Haze truck. After all, our mantra is “BE ORIGINAL.” So that’s where our good friends at White Trash Customs from Fredericktown, Missouri came into play. I told Dave Couch at WTC what our color choice was going to be, plus our goal so he could map out the beautiful paint job. In just a few days, we had what would become the wildest build to date for TRUX Accessories.
1997 Kenworth W900L with a CAT 3406 engine, 60″ flat top sleeper, 265″ wheelbase, 13 speed transmission, and 3:55 gear ratio | Photo by Diesel Addict Photos
Dave used a candy blue paint with little bits of darker
blues added. Coats of candy blue were applied all over a silver flake metallic
base coat. The frame is a glass prism over black, and the prism colors change
depending on the angle of the sunlight. The frame paint is a crowd favorite; people
are amazed by the infinite color shifting effect.
The frame features holographic, color shifting glass prism paint over black
With a hot rod like this we knew that the stock Kenworth hood wasn’t going to be the statement piece we were looking for. So, once again, we outsourced the work to the best in the business: Dave Jones at Jones Performance. I told Jones it needed hot rod scoops, a cowl induction, and model headlight holes. After years of admiring the work that Jones does I should’ve been more prepared, but the finished product blew me away and continues to impress onlookers at every show we attend. Jones built the one-piece hood with all its custom touches in a very short time, and we couldn’t be happier with the finished product.
A custom truck couldn’t be custom without some custom stainless, so we had our friends at Aranda Truck fab the panels, visor, and bumper with a double layered backlit design and arched scallops all over. The stainless work on this truck is second to none and draws attention all over the country.
“Code Blue effect” with custom arched scallops and back-lighting
The lighting on Code Blue is all dual revolution TRUX Accessories lighting. Today we take for granted our color changing lights, multifunction work lights, and amazing technological tricks that we have built into many of our products. But Code Blue is here to remind us how cool these products really are, and how much fun we can have with our show trucks. We’re all just big kids; our toys are just more expensive and shine a little bit brighter. All the marker lights, cab lights, 4-inch, and watermelon lights (over 400 in total!) are all capable of being used in a DOT legal form and color but can be easily switched to a brilliant blue for the maximum “Code Blue effect.” Every panel is backlit with the all new TRUX glow series strip light, also in blue. To light the ground around the truck, we used blue strips inside the air cleaners, all around the interior, on the fuel tank straps, and around the air cleaner lids, as well as under the deck plates. You could say that this is over the top, but in a dark parking lot, it’s the shining light of originality telling everyone to buy TRUX Accessories at your local Iowa 80 Group chrome shop.
Eye catching, original modeled tail lights that wrap around the corners
TRUX also uses the show trucks as a way to promote newly developed prototypes. That’s the case with one of the biggest design elements of the Code Blue, our all new molded tail light series (coming soon). The rear of Code Blue is lit up with an amazing 3-piece panel set with modeled tail lights that wrap around the corners, giving the ultimate in stop tail turn and reverse technology that would look more at home on an Italian sports car than on a semi-truck. Our new tail light series is bringing the TRUX “BE ORIGINAL” sentiment to the masses with a truly original design for the future of truck lighting. Be sure to follow TRUX and Iowa80.com on social media to keep up to date with the final release date for these exciting parts.
Retro series headlight on Purple Haze
While TRUX is certainly the leader in originality we also know how to kick it old school when we need to. With our retro series headlight set you can have that wicked old-school model look without sacrificing the incredible optics of a top shelf LED headlight. What’s a classic show truck without straight stacks? The 8-inch TRUX pipes on Code Blue are our stock pipes that we have always offered at great prices through any of our dealers. We are working hard to introduce Kenworth elbows this year, along with our already successful Peterbilt exhaust line. We are also adding several new and exciting exhaust products that are sure to catch the eye of even the most old-school driver out there.
Code Blue before any of the blue
TRUX is known for lighting but we’re also one of the largest fender suppliers in the country. All our show trucks focus on our stainless steel fenders. For Code Blue, we decided to use our least expensive single axle fenders and “roll” them forward to look more like a custom quarter fender set. The fenders have gotten a lot of attention at shows and people are shocked when we tell them that the fenders are not custom and can be purchased anywhere that TRUX Accessories are sold.
We hope you enjoy Code Blue as much as we enjoyed building it for you. If you see us on the road between shows, be sure to give us a shout on the radio. Follow us on social media and see #codebluekw to keep up with where we are and what’s going on with our crazy little show truck!
Winter is a dangerous time of year for drivers. The reason is fairly obvious. Snow and ice can make some roads difficult to navigate, if not impassable. Throw some altitude into the mix and you have created a potentially fatal challenge that truck drivers often have no choice but to overcome.
Your truck is more than just a vehicle. It’s your office space, your home away from home, and represents a huge investment. Using the best semi truck productsto keep your vehicle clean and looking its best on the inside as well as the outside not only helps keep you happy and more productive while working, it also makes a good impression on potential customers. The following tips can help your truck to shine during the sunny summer months.
As a professional truck driver, you take pride in your work, and that pride can be expressed through how you present your rig. You have lots of options to customize with semi truck exterior accessories which can add safety and flair when you hit the road. From cab to wheels, you can give your semi the makeover it deserves to reflect who you are as well as to protect you and other drivers around you. Here are just a few of the exterior truck accessoriesyou may want to consider to add personality to your ride.
TAFS has released The Ultimate Guide to Freight Factoring, the latest guide that breaks down all anyone needs to know with regard to freight factoring and what it means to a customer. The guide also gives in depth detail about the history of freight factoring, the use of the system, and breaks down the entire process from start to finish.
Continue reading The Ultimate Guide to Freight Factoring→
Keeping your semi truck clean, inside and out, is a good idea for several reasons, personal as well as professional. Your semi truck cab interior is where you spend a great deal of your time, and you’re likely to be more comfortable if you keep it clean and organized. Cleaning your truck on a regular basis helps to preserve it and retain its resale value. Finally, a clean truck is a mark of professionalism that makes a good impression on potential clients.
Congratulations on your new job driving a flatbed truck, freight truck or something similar. Before you set out on your first long run, you should brush up on the things truckers need to better ensure you start your journey off on the right foot. With that in mind, here’s a thorough list to help you compile a checklist.
If you’re an over-the-road truck driver, the cab of your semi is not only your place of business, it’s also your home away from home. Therefore, there’s no need to keep the space dull, drab, and strictly professional. You lead a difficult life, with work that keeps you away from your residence for long stretches of time. Therefore, it is completely appropriate to bring along semi truck accessories to make your sleeper cab feel more homey. Given the amount of time you spend there, you should feel comfortable in your truck’s interior.
