J. C. Schmitz Trucking
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| J. C. Schmitz Trucking started in 1983 with a 1979 Freightliner cabover. From that day, John wanted to own a large car. The cabover was bought and we kept it for two years. It was orange and brown and we called it the pumpkin. This was a dollar truck from Midwestern Distribution. It had a shiny 290 with a 9 speed. There was nothing fancy about this truck. By the time we sold this truck, it had a shiny chrome bumper, nut covers, hubcaps, and chrome curved stacks. We pulled a van at Midwestern. After we left Midwestern, we pulled a hopper bottom grain trailer with it. Later we bought a flat bed to haul steel and various flat bed freight from Texas to California and back. We were leased to a friend who had his own authority. Since we were running out west, we needed more horse power and a bigger truck. In 1985, we bought a 1982 Freightliner Conventional which brought us closer to that large car. We kept this truck for 11 years. John put 1,300,000 miles on this truck. John honed his mechanicing skills on this truck trying to keep it going. This truck had a 400 Cummins and we hopped it up with parts from Diesel Injection. This truck was a classic style and many times it was mistaken for a Peterbilt. We bought this truck because we were running back and forth to California. We hauled structure steel from Texas to California and lumber back to Texas every week for a couple of years. After that, we hauled oilfield pipe, oilfield equipment, and chemicals while we were leased to various oilfield trucking companies mainly running oilfield states. We bought our first Peterbilt in 1996. It was a 1992 Extended Hood Peterbilt that was black lilac in color. This was our first big bad Peterbilt. A dream come true for someone who had only dreamed of a truck like this. It had a 425 Cat that was turned up with a 15 speed. This truck would run down the road. This was the last mechanical engine we had. This truck was fun for our girls since they had a bunk of their own when they rode with their Dad. We were still hauling the oilfield freight. When the oilfield slowed down for the umpteenth time, we grew tired of the up and down of the oilfield. We started pulling a tanker hauling fuel and chemicals. We kept this truck for about three years. This truck was too heavy for tanker work so we began the process of specing Saddle Up. The most fun John ever had was working on the specs for his new truck. It needed to be light weight for the job and still be the large car. There was lots of figuring going on to try to make the truck as light weight as possible. Saddle Up was ordered from the factory. We requested that it be stacked up so it only had 6 miles on it when it was delivered to us. It is a 2000 Peterbilt that is Stardust gold and Hunter green. It has a 500 Detroit in it with a 10 speed transmission. It was speced for weight and fuel mileage. The tag weight is 17,340. We pulled a tanker with it for a couple of years. During that time, we bought a second truck which was speced with our specs with the exception of the motor, transmission, suspension, and color. The second truck was only 900 pounds heaver than Saddle Up. We met the management of Watt and Stewart at this time while talking about light weight speced trucks. It took us a little while to warm up to the idea of going back to the longhaul highway. We leased Saddle Up on to Watt & Stewart Trucking in February of 2002 and were their third lease truck. We wanted to make sure this was the right move so we waited on the second truck. A few months later, we leased it on and now we had grown to six trucks. We haul the big tires that go on mining equipment at various mines across the nation. We haul just about anything you can put on a flat bed to get us back to the tire plant. We have put Saddle Up in six Great American Truck Shows in Dallas, Texas. It has also been in the Billy Bob's Truck Show. We have won a total of eight awards with Saddle Up. Saddle Up has been an ongoing project. When we originally bought the truck from the dealer, we had them put six inch straight pipes, aluminum fenders painted to match the front fenders, stainless for the gauges and toggles on the dash, and air cleaner and cab and sleeper lights. This is how it started and from then until now, we have slowly added custom parts with some bought from the chrome stores and with some made by us. Some of the custom parts added are the fender bras, WTI fenders, chrome nut covers, visored chrome light covers for all lights, drop visor, LED lights, diamond plate frame covers, between the frame storage box, and various additions. Beyond the awards at truck shows, Saddle Up not only made the Pride and Polish calendar in 2007 but also was the cover truck. Saddle Up was also chosen for the Photo Card truck trading card series four. As much as the awards mean to us, the friendships and comraderee means so much more. Our new friends through truck show are treasured by our family. We always look forward to seeing everyone every year. Saddle Up has been joined by two other flat top Peterbilts. There are also three other Peterbilt trucks in our fleet that we consider starter trucks for our employees. The second flat top truck we bought brand new. It is a 2000 and it was speced just like Saddle Up. It has a 500 Cat with a 18 speed transmission. It is red with black fenders, drop visor, six inch straight pipes, aluminum half fenders, American class interior, and wide ride low rider Bostrom seats. The next truck we bought was a 1998 Peterbilt extended hood flat top. It is a two tone blue in color. It has a 475 Cat with a 9 speed transmission. It has a drop visor, 6 inch straight pipes, LED cab and sleeper lights, blue classic interior, and end of frame stainless light panel. The next truck is a 1998 Peterbilt short hood 48 inch standup sleeper. It is white with a blue frame and a red interior. It has a 470 Detroit with a 10 speed transmission. It has LED air cleaner, cab and sleeper lights, saddle boxes, and end of frame stainless light panel. The last two trucks we have are old Watt and Stewart company trucks. They are both 2001 Peterbilt short hood 48 inch standup sleepers. They are mocha pearl with burgundy fenders. They both have C12 Cat motors in them. They both have American class interiors, drop visors, Drom headache racks, and half fenders. These are both nice little trucks. As of the Spring of 2008, both of the 2001 Peterbilts were sold. We decided to turn a new page and moved to Landstar as of June 2008. |
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