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American Trucks: A Photographic Essay of American Trucks and Trucking
Paperback published by Osprey, 1982.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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December 29, 2025
I would never have thought that I would ever have known what 'a conventional Pete or KW' would have meant. But, having read David Jacobs' in-depth book 'American Trucks' I am well versed as to exactly what they are! For those readers who like me would perhaps always have been wondering, they are two major manufacturers of these heavyweight vehicles, Peterbilt and Kenworth ... and there are plenty of examples of them and others similar in this superb book which is jam packed with colour photographs.
I also thought that I would probably never read a book on American trucks but, having always been impressed when seeing on television long-distance American truck drivers and the seemingly oversize vehicles that they drove that when I saw this copy I realised that here was the opportunity to get to know more about the subject. Indeed, David Jacobs' opening sentence sucked me in as he wrote, 'The American truck driver and the life of the American truck driver have always been seen as romantic and free-moving, as latter day leftovers of the Wild West.' Yes, please continue ...!
The distance some of these juggernauts travel, the size of the vehicles and their construction (some with almost a mini-hotel attached to the cab) and some of the names of the companies and their logos was irresistible for me; 'Death Valley Trucking, Inc., CA' with an old four-horse drawn wagon with a cowboy whipping up the steeds is perhaps one of the best.
As for the vehicles, a KW double tanker, for instance, can carry up to 100,000 gallons of gas as it ploughs it way from Oceanside, Southern California, and if it stops en route (at places such as the Truckadero) and needs a clean, there are stopovers where for $36 dollars men and machines will make the rig shining once more so that the custom paintwork can be shown off to advantage.
Some of the mirroring arrangements on these monsters are amazing, as they can carry concave, convex, flat and full vision mirrors (heaven only knows which one to look at), together with CB aerials, some apparently fitted with illegal boosters, and a deflector shield to persuade bugs not to hit the windshield. Customising is not uncommon with one Peterbilt conventional with 350 Cummins engine and 13-speed transmission (whatever that means exactly!) had $16,000 spent on it on customising alone.
As for box vans, we do have those here in the United Kingdom but there are none that I have seen that would rival Sidney Sowle's 'Mayflower - World Wide Moving'. The author describes it, sitting ready for a journey from Flagstaff, Arizona, as 'fairly unusual because of its length'. I would have thought, from my limited knowledge of box vans, extremely unusual!
Many of the vehicles have hand-lined custom paintwork features; painters apparently can have as many as 50 or more rigs to work on while repeating the same insignia on each. And as for the sleeping arrangements for the truckers, the Aerodyne Kenworth is equipped with a double sleeper cabover in which the driver 'lacks nothing in home comforts'. But Macks (another manufacturer) with sleepers are not so common - having said that, there is a superb photograph of a Cabover Mack in the centre of Manhattan with the added comment 'An unusual sight downtown because of its size.' I must say it does look rather out of place!
Perhaps the busiest trucking centre in mid-Southern California is the one at Bakersfield where there are regularly 200 trucks as this stop provides a cross-roads for the trucking industry. But some truckers are more locally based and would not need stopovers. For instance, one International fuel tanker working out of Chula Vista, San Diego, would make six drops a night, each time unloading its 8750 gallons of fuel in 30 minutes.
As for the earnings of these truckers, only one example is quoted in the book. That is Dug Bryant, working out of Phoenix and driving a White and he, as the owner, works a 14-hour day, and has done so for 22 years, and the $2000 per week turnover has to pay all costs.
Not only does this excellent book give a really detailed review of the subject, the photographs show just how spacious the USA is. And for those of us who will never 'see "coast to coast" through the windshield of an 18-wheeler or who will never hear the pounding of a conventional Pete or KW (I am into the phraseology now!) "pouring on the coal" in its homeland, or the chatter of the ubiquitous CB radio as drivers pass the day' it is a colourful photographic essay that gives us the next best option.
I also thought that I would probably never read a book on American trucks but, having always been impressed when seeing on television long-distance American truck drivers and the seemingly oversize vehicles that they drove that when I saw this copy I realised that here was the opportunity to get to know more about the subject. Indeed, David Jacobs' opening sentence sucked me in as he wrote, 'The American truck driver and the life of the American truck driver have always been seen as romantic and free-moving, as latter day leftovers of the Wild West.' Yes, please continue ...!
The distance some of these juggernauts travel, the size of the vehicles and their construction (some with almost a mini-hotel attached to the cab) and some of the names of the companies and their logos was irresistible for me; 'Death Valley Trucking, Inc., CA' with an old four-horse drawn wagon with a cowboy whipping up the steeds is perhaps one of the best.
As for the vehicles, a KW double tanker, for instance, can carry up to 100,000 gallons of gas as it ploughs it way from Oceanside, Southern California, and if it stops en route (at places such as the Truckadero) and needs a clean, there are stopovers where for $36 dollars men and machines will make the rig shining once more so that the custom paintwork can be shown off to advantage.
Some of the mirroring arrangements on these monsters are amazing, as they can carry concave, convex, flat and full vision mirrors (heaven only knows which one to look at), together with CB aerials, some apparently fitted with illegal boosters, and a deflector shield to persuade bugs not to hit the windshield. Customising is not uncommon with one Peterbilt conventional with 350 Cummins engine and 13-speed transmission (whatever that means exactly!) had $16,000 spent on it on customising alone.
As for box vans, we do have those here in the United Kingdom but there are none that I have seen that would rival Sidney Sowle's 'Mayflower - World Wide Moving'. The author describes it, sitting ready for a journey from Flagstaff, Arizona, as 'fairly unusual because of its length'. I would have thought, from my limited knowledge of box vans, extremely unusual!
Many of the vehicles have hand-lined custom paintwork features; painters apparently can have as many as 50 or more rigs to work on while repeating the same insignia on each. And as for the sleeping arrangements for the truckers, the Aerodyne Kenworth is equipped with a double sleeper cabover in which the driver 'lacks nothing in home comforts'. But Macks (another manufacturer) with sleepers are not so common - having said that, there is a superb photograph of a Cabover Mack in the centre of Manhattan with the added comment 'An unusual sight downtown because of its size.' I must say it does look rather out of place!
Perhaps the busiest trucking centre in mid-Southern California is the one at Bakersfield where there are regularly 200 trucks as this stop provides a cross-roads for the trucking industry. But some truckers are more locally based and would not need stopovers. For instance, one International fuel tanker working out of Chula Vista, San Diego, would make six drops a night, each time unloading its 8750 gallons of fuel in 30 minutes.
As for the earnings of these truckers, only one example is quoted in the book. That is Dug Bryant, working out of Phoenix and driving a White and he, as the owner, works a 14-hour day, and has done so for 22 years, and the $2000 per week turnover has to pay all costs.
Not only does this excellent book give a really detailed review of the subject, the photographs show just how spacious the USA is. And for those of us who will never 'see "coast to coast" through the windshield of an 18-wheeler or who will never hear the pounding of a conventional Pete or KW (I am into the phraseology now!) "pouring on the coal" in its homeland, or the chatter of the ubiquitous CB radio as drivers pass the day' it is a colourful photographic essay that gives us the next best option.
Displaying 1 of 1 review