Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/82527
CUSTOM RIGS LIMITED-MILEAGE COMBO First Gear November, though, appropriately naming Tanner's first truck First Gear, says the elder Stroup. They switched out the back panel in the sleeper and continued those lines through the 60 | Overdrive | October 2012 shock box cover, the deck plate, cabin bunk pan- els and battery boxes. Randy Stroup's 2005 Peterbilt 379 First Gear technically belongs to 18-year-old Tanner Stroup, son of First Class Services owner Randy Stroup, who has quite a history of pro- ducing winning show trucks himself. His 1986 Peterbilt 359, First in Class, won the National Championship in the Limited-Mileage Bobtail cat- egory in 2011. Father and son started a new project in They shaved the top, hid the hood hinges and hood latches and then turned it over to 4 State Trucks to deck out the truck's interior, which now dons handmade inner panels and a Peterbilt 359 Corvette dash (a conversion kit offered by 4 State). "We like to build them detailed and clean," Stroup says, and he had Airbrush Inc. owner Steve Ray paint the truck's detailed gear-themed graphics. Stroup's crew then added the truck's red and white paint and finish. Tanner's going to start driving the truck full- time this year, Stroup says, once the crew is done showing it. It won Best of Show, Limited- Mileage Combo, at the 75 Chrome Shop Show in April and at The Great West Truck Show in June. First Class Services began work on its First Gear project in November, attempting to ready the truck for a show in March. "It was tight," says owner Randy Stroup, whose son Tanner will pilot the rig when they're done showing it. "We had some days when there were 16 people trying to get it ready."