Haulin' Glory: Kaleb Hammett on Truck Shows and Family Legacy

Kaleb Hammett's Award-Winning Truck Journey: Behind the Scenes at Shell Super Rigs

In this episode of the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast, hosts Chris Harris and Johnny sit down with Kaleb Hammett, an owner-operator from Dodge City, Texas, who won Best of Show at the 2024 Shell Rotella Truck Show. Kaleb, who runs a family business established in 1963, gives an in-depth look at his prized 2019 Peterbilt 389 factory heavy haul glider, detailing the extensive customizations made in memory of his late grandfather.

Kaleb also discusses the preparations and emotions involved in participating in truck shows, the importance of networking over winning trophies, and offers advice to newcomers in the truck show community. He plans to attend the Super Rigs event at Atlanta Motor Speedway at the end of the month, bringing his unique and highly customized trucks to the much-anticipated event.

00:00 Introduction and Show Highlights
00:28 Meet Kaleb Hammett
01:02 Kaleb's Truck and Family Business
02:16 Truck Shows and Competitions
03:46 Truck Customization and Tribute
06:51 Preparing for Super Rigs
09:41 Behind the Scenes of Truck Shows
16:29 Advice for Newcomers and Conclusion

Reach out to Kaleb:
https://www.hammett-excavation.com/

Your Hosts:
John Farquhar
National Risk Services Specialist, Transportation, Gallager GGB
https://www.ajg.com/ca/
M: 437-341-0932
John_Farquhar@ajg.com

Chris Harris
CEO, Safety Dawg Inc.
905 973 7056
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
https://safetydawg.com/

Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

Transcript

0:00

In 2024, you were winning Best of show. Now what show was that? That was Shell Rotella, personally one of my favorite shows to go to. Tell us a bit more about your truck, Kayla. So it's a 2019 Peterbilt 3 89 factory heavy haul glider. What kind of heavy haul work are you doing? I mostly specialize in Yellow Iron. When is the Super rigs this year, do you know? Uh, it's the end of this month. It's going to be in Atlanta Motor Speedway. And this week on the show we've got Kaleb. He is an owner operator that last year won best in class at Super Rigs, and we have a chance to sit down with him and discuss truck shows and trucking companies. Join us. Here it comes next. Welcome to the Trekking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Hey Kaleb, welcome to the show. Can you take a second and introduce yourself for our viewers? Yes. Uh, my name's Kaleb Hammett. Uh, we're outta Dodge City, Texas. Uh, owner operator got a 2019 Peter built 3 89. Uh, heavy haul factory heavy haul. Uh, it's a family business. We've been in business since 1963. Uh, and we've, we've been on that little hill all that time. Cool. I was gonna say, tell us, tell us a little bit about the family business. What, what type of operation is it? So, my grandpa started the company in 1963. He, uh, worked at the electric co-op at not. Bought his first dozer and was running that during the daytime. Then fast forward to early two thousands. My, well, my dad was always in the pitcher. Uh, he started taking over the dirt company and, uh, early two thousands we started getting into landfills, like waste management and then, uh, started doing subdivisions all around the metroplex area. And then whenever I graduated high school. We had two trucks and my dad said, uh, here's two trucks, and go do what you need to do with them. As of today, I'm up to 32 trucks now. Nice. How cool. But not all 32 trucks won an award last year. Right? In 2024 you were winning Best of show. Now what show was that? That was Shell Rotella, personally, one of my favorite shows to go to. And heck, we, I was lucky enough last year to win Best of Show. I don't know that luck comes in. Well, I'm sure the top three vehicles are really close and that part of it, uh, it might be lucky to be the, the absolute top one, but. I don't think there's any luck to being in the top section of it. It takes a lot of hard work. Every truck there was just a super cool truck. Yep. And it, it, all, the runner ups, I mean, they all deserve the best to show. And I mean, going to these shows, it's, it's not about a trophy, it's about, I. Meeting people, talking to people, getting people's ideals, seeing what they do to their trucks.'cause my brain, whenever I'm walking around the show, I, I like looking at everybody's stuff, seeing their ideals and their inputs on stuff. And like that, that's what going to a show is for me. And meeting new people from all over the place. It, it's not about a trophy. Yep. More about that networking and, uh, fellowship. Yes, you get to interact with and find about that new piece of Chrome that I didn't know existed. Right. Tell us a bit more about your truck, Kaleb. So it's a 2019 Peterbilt 3 89 fact. Three heavy haul glider, uh, 20,000 front, uh, 46 rears, 20,000 pusher. It has two speed rear ends and it, uh, tons of custom work done to it. It's vi red with a charcoal gray drop. It's kind of the sequence, the second sequence to my old gray and red heavy haul that I showed at super rigs, either two or three years. Uh, and both them trucks were built in memory of my grandpa. Uh, he died in 2014 with lung cancer. So the charcoal red and the charcoal and the viper red, the viper red and the charcoal gray. Uh, they were his two favorite colors. So the gray truck was named Ya Savvy. The truck that I'm talking about is name Hoss.'cause that's one thing that he would always ask somebody. Uh, ya Savvy Hoss. So, um, that's cool. Yep. Yep. So, uh, this, this was the second truck to pay tribute to him. Uh. Did a whole bunch of custom metal work to it. Uh, front T bars, fender brackets, back t-bar we all did in-house. Uh, we paint in-house. We didn't paint the stripes on it. Uh, Larson group up in Springfield painted the stripes on it. Uh, it's got a c it's got a C 16 one in it. Uh, it's. Got PDI compounds on it, big injectors. It, it, it can pull a house down if you wanted it to. Uh, 18 speed transmission, uh, like I said, two speed rear ends. Uh, it's got three nineties on the high, uh, high side and 5 36 is on the low side for whenever you're pulling stuff that's real heavy, it's gotta a different interior in it. Than it did at Super Rigs. Uh, I took it up there to Randy Martin up at spare time, uh, and had him redo all the interior. He pulled the dashed out, uh, fully wrapped the dash in, leather, redid the door panels, put red carpet in. Uh, just wanted to give it a little bit more of a, um, high-end car look, I guess you could say, like a hot rod look. And then, uh. Moved all the air rod underneath the, uh, sleeper, uh, to give it that clean, slick look. All glass lights.'cause I, I'm a glass guy over plastic. And then it's got a custom built front air rod to accommodate the 20,000 pound. Front end and dual steering boxes. Uh, so yes, it sits low, but it's still a true 20,000 pound beam. Not necessarily the springs are 20,000 pounds, but went with Ken Kenworth, uh, like the eight bag set up airbags for the back end so that way you can have the structured stability if you do put that much weight up on the front, which as long as that truck is, it's, it's hard to get 20,000 up on the front end. What is the wheel base on it? 3 0 3. 3 0 3, okay. I had three 20 in my head just to see if I was close, so yeah, quite that long. That's the, that's the first truck that I ever did over three, that I did 300 or over and Yep. I can tell you this, for what we do, it's still just, it's staying in the two hundreds for now. Now, you'd mentioned you do some heavy haul. What kind of heavy haul work are you doing? So we, I mostly specialize in Yellow Iron. Uh, yep. Like we, we will, we haul all of our own excavation equipment, of course, and then like we'll haul stuff for waste management, other, uh, excavation companies around the df w batch, plex rental company equipment, so on and so forth. Okay, cool. What makes it different than the other trucks at Super Route? Like I was saying, all all them trucks, they're cool in their own way. You know, the customization level, I mean, everybody's customization level, they're, it's, it's all up here. And I mean, I, I don't, I don't really know what the judges seen was different than mine, than the others. I mean, I, I put my boots on just like everybody else, and I guess they just liked it. Where was Super Rigs in 24. And do you know where it's gonna be in 25? So Super Rigs last year was at, uh, Texas Motor Speedway, which is only about hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes away from my shop. So got to go, uh, took five, I think it was five trucks? Yes, five trucks. Uh, there. Uh, and then this year it's going to be in Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hmm. And are you going up to Atlanta this year? I am. I'm going to take, uh, I don't know if you've seen the Day Cab I did with the big Steerable that I took there last year, but, uh, I'm going to take that one there this year and I've got one in the works, uh, that I'm putting together that's hopefully going to be done to go to that one. Cool. Nice. Got some work ahead of you? I do. When is the, uh, the Super Rigs this year? Do you know? Uh, it's the end of this month. Oh, so you've got work to do. And, and so you're, if it makes it, we'll be there with that new, that truck that we're, it's not a new truck. We've had it for a while. It's, we'll be cutting it by the skin of our teeth to get it there on. Finishing it off as you're driving there. Yes, yes. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. If you said at the end of this month, uh, recording the date today is, uh, may the 14th. So this episode may not make it out in time, but, uh, you will be at Super Rigs in Atlanta this year? Yes. Cool. That's pretty cool. Uh, yeah. I wonder what I can do to bump this up to get it out there. But anyways, Johnny, go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say, so, so talk, talk to us a little bit about behind the scenes as a competitor or a participant in super regs, you know, 'cause there's lots of us that come and partake and, you know, eye candy and all that stuff. But from your perspective, you know, of one, not only getting that, that truck prepared for the show. But even just you going through the motions, the different things that you're feeling and going through, knowing that your truck is in the competition. What I'll do before that show is, uh. I like to pull the truck in about a week ahead of time and strip all the fenders off and just do a real deep cleaning on it and touch up any paint that I need to touch up or anything like that. And then we will go to the show from there. And then once we get there, we'll just try to keep it as clean as possible. Which, I mean, you might hit weather on the way there, but mm-hmm. And. I have to redo all that hard work over that you did at the shop, but that's kind of the fun in it. Uh, sitting there, working it every day and then seeing how clean you can get it. It's kinda like a game. Both of us have been, all three of us have been to truck shows, and I've seen, I've never put a truck in. I just walk around and look at the people working so hard. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Trying to. To clean their trucks and then trying to keep them clean after many hours of polishing and shining, it's, to me, it's amazing that so many people wanna put that type of work into 'em. Just for me to walk around and as John said, look at the eye candy. Look at all these trucks with the, and they're just gleaming. It's a sense of pride you get after. Yes. Getting it to the, that level of clean and. It's, you can just step back and look like that looks great. I competed once a number of years ago in an Ontario show and, uh, mine was a working truck by all means, and we didn't get a chance to put her down for a week before the show. I was basically a last minute decision to put it in. It was a black 3 79 Pete. And, um. The, the work we had to do at the show, we got there the day before the show and the cleaning we did, and I had a trailer connected to it. We had to clean the trailer, we had to clean the truck, the bugs just from the travel from getting there and everything. And, and we worked till like three in the morning getting it prepared for the next day.'cause the judges were gonna start at eight in the morning and it was nuts. And I just said. I'm never doing this again. But it's, it's, it's definitely, uh, you have to have the passion for it. There's no doubt about it. Now I will say I walked away with second prize, which I was very shocked about. Uh, 'cause there was a lot of nice iron there. But that's what made me wonder, like, what, what's going through your mind knowing that these guys are gonna come around and, and judge your piece of equipment and, you know, you're kinda wondering, is it. Are you nice, calm and cool and collected and thought, well, if I get it, I get it. I don't. Or is it like, damn, I really hope my work pays off and it shows through. Uh, it, it, I I get nervous as all get out talking to judges and stuff, and I mean, I like showing off my ideals and I mean, if, if they like it, they like it, if they, they don't, they don't. I mean, that's, yeah, that's just the way it is at the end of the day. And, but, uh, I mean, like I said, going into these shows and everything, it's, it's not about the trophy or anything like that. It's about. The good people that you meet and the friendships that you make at the shows and everything else. Yep. Well, I was gonna say that trophy doesn't hurt. Give you a little bit of bragging rights too. It doesn't hurt at all. Kind of put that up on the wall at the, at the office to kind of be able to say, oh, definitely, definitely. Let's try it again next year. So, which you're gonna do in a couple of weeks. Yes. Now how many people, is it from your company for just one truck? Uh. How many people are you taking, uh, to the show? Or is it just you once you get there? So this year it'll just be me and Brandon that drives the day cab that pulls the big steerable that I took there last year. And then the guy that Isabel a drive, that truck that we're working on, I'll take him 'cause uh, he, he's, he's worked for me for. A long time. He's, ever since he was in high school, he was washing trucks for me in high school. And, uh, once he turned 18, I helped him get a CDL and he just worked his way up to the ranks. And, uh, whenever this truck came open, I gave it to him and he's just a good kid and he's 20 years old now, so. I've gotta drive the truck out there, but I had to redo it because, uh, he was headed to the pit one day and got hit head on. So it wasn't his fault. Everybody was okay. Uh, but we're in the process of getting that truck put back together and we're gonna make it bigger and better than what it ever was. Cool. Oh, there's gonna be many hours, uh, probably late nights as well, 'cause. Today, you're still out, you're in the truck driving. Yes. Yes. Right. So you gotta get back to the shop and, and did I miss it, John? You said one week, is that how long it takes you to prepare the truck just to get it out there? Yes. So that's one week of lost revenue basically. So these shows, I don't want to say are expensive, but they are certainly an investment if you're. Investing your hard work, uh, taking the truck off the road for a week, week and a half.'cause you gotta get it back. You won't be taking a load up to, uh, Atlanta, I don't think. I don't really have that much going out that way, but I'll try to find a load going out. Sure. You can never, with, with the way the load boards are and everything, you can, you can never tell if you're gonna get something, be able to get something to. Forward to make sense. Right, right. Yeah, definitely shows a serious commitment to it though. There's no doubt about that. You gotta love it, that's for sure. What I love most about it is just getting to see everybody that you meet at these shows, because you don't, because like doing what we do, we're Texas, Oklahoma only, right? Yep. So getting to see people from everywhere else that you've met at these shows, that that's the great part about it. That's what I love. It's a, it's a whole different community, isn't it, Kaleb? You know, you've got those, the, the show folks and whatnot versus the folks that you truck up and down the highway with and, you know, it just is quite different and great experiences meeting these folks. It is, it is. As we wrap this up, um, we're talking about the Shell Super rigs. This year, Kaleb, what's the date in May? Yeah, I think it's the 29th through the 31st, I think. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. I believe you're right. Uh, May 29th through the 31st. And where's the location this year? Atlanta Motor Speedway. Atlanta Motor Speedway. So for all of you who can get out there, check out. This has gotta be one of the bigger truck shows in the States, is it not? It it is, it is. And Shell, they do such a awesome job putting the show together. Uh, everything about it. I mean, every shell show that I've been to has just been nothing but a good time. And they're always happy to see you there. What's some advice you'd give, uh. A newbie that wants to get a truck into this show and whatnot, what would you suggest to somebody that's new to this, new to this community, or new to the idea of putting a show truck in? Don't be scared to do it. Just, just go and, I mean, don't go expecting anything. Go. Go to have fun, go to meet new people and just have fun with it. And, and you don't necessarily have to spend a ton of money to go and have fun. Right. I think that's a great piece of advice. Kaleb. Uh, go with low expectations, uh, go with the right attitude of having fun. And by walking around you're gonna learn what your competitors are doing. And if you want, you can up your game for the following year. Correct. And, and I mean, build relationships with people and Yeah. Meet new people and. I mean, just fellowship and have a good time. Yep. Yep. I think that's a great way to leave it off the shell Super rigs. I'm gonna try to produce this thing and get it out before the show date. What the heck? Put some work in here, Chris. Uh, yep. Kaleb. Did. Kaleb's gonna be, I mean to say it politely, he is gonna be working his ass off to get the, the truck ready. Exactly. For the show, so maybe I can work a little harder and get this episode out before, uh, the end of May. Kaleb, thanks so much for joining John and I on the show. Thank you. Definitely appreciate the opportunity. Oh, no problem. And if anybody out there sees Kaleb at the show, say hi from us. Yeah, come on. Bond. Just say hello and. Chit chat for a little bit. Kaleb, thank you so much for being on the show, Johnny, and I really appreciate it. And for you, our guests, our viewers, and our watchers, please join us again next week. And don't forget to click like and subscribe. Appreciate you all. Chris Harris. Safety dog. And I am outta here.