My New truck
My old truck with different trailers
If you like to read, here is some history
The History of Peterbilt For the men who developed, drove, and financed the first unwieldy "motor wagons", there was very little glamour. Motor-driven commercial vehicles had to prove themselves in strict economic terms, and the competition was fierce. By the early 1900's, steam power had been fully developed. Railroads could transport goods cross-country in ten days and a far greater number of towns were served by railheads than are today. Rivers and canals were being utilized, and for short hauls, horse power was extremely reliable, required little maintenance, and fuel was cheap. In short, there was no apparent need for motor trucks. Add to this the total lack of decent roads and you get some idea of the tremendous obstacles that early truck manufacturers faced. Companies like Fageol, Sternberg, and Sampson not only had to gain acceptance for their products, but also had to design systems and components that could operate and survive on nearly non-existent roads. With the help of World War I and John MacAdam, who invented the Macadam road surface, the manufacturers were equal to the task. MacAdam provided the technology to build good roads, and World War I created the need. In 1914, tremendous demands were placed on the railroads by the war effort. The huge volume of war supplies, troops, and food that had to be transported, overloaded the rail system. Trucks were called on to ease the burden. Truck manufacturers and operators responded immediately but it was apparent that, to get the job done, a good system of highways was needed. The federal and state governments responded by establishing highway commissions with responsibility for seeing that the roads were built and maintained. By the end of the war, the motor truck was firmly established as a viable and important means of transportation. After World War I, the years marked a steady increase in good roads plus an expanding economy, resulting in rapid growth for the trucking industry. Unit sales for 1918, the last year of the war, were more than 227,000 units, and by 1929, had increased to nearly 882,000. As a result of the depression, sales dropped and would not reach the 1929 level again until 1937. The 1920's were years of innovation. Balloon tires were introduced for trucks, the railroads established "piggy-back" service, the first mechanically refrigerated van was introduced, and in 1921, the first sleeper cabs appeared. By 1925, there were 500,000 miles of hard surface roads in the United States, and in 1926, a fully loaded two ton truck was driven from New York to San Francisco in five days and thirty minutes. After World War I, engine manufacturers began experimenting with diesel engines. High production cost, weight, and complicated structure delayed progress. In 1919, C.L. Cummins founded the engine company that bears his name, and set about improving and popularizing the diesel engine. In 1931, he made several highly publicized cross country trips in trucks and buses powered by his engines, and succeeded in selling the diesel engine to American truckers. Although business dropped off substantially during the depression years of the 1930's, innovations in truck design continued. The cabover increased in popularity. Except for some delivery services in large cities, horses had been replaced by trucks. The freight hauling revolution was complete in a quarter of a century. The 1930's saw the continued growth of long haul trucking. Though sales were down, trucking was not as devastated by the depression as many other businesses. New models and designs were continually being introduced. Still, many companies were forced into bankruptcy. One of these was the Fageol Motors Company of Oakland, California, which went into receivership in 1932 after seventeen years of producing rugged, heavy duty trucks and luxury buses. The receivers, the Waukesha Motor Company and the Central Bank of Oakland, operated the business until 1938. That year, they sold it to T.A. Peterman, a logger and plywood manufacturer from Tacoma, Washington. Peterman had been rebuilding surplus army trucks, and modifying old logging trucks for use in his own lumber operations. By 1938, his lumber operations had expanded beyond the capabilities of his special fleet of modified trucks. Since he was a man who did things his own way, he purchased the Fageol assets in order to build his own custom chain drive logging trucks. While Henry Ford was cranking out hundreds of trucks a day, T.A. Peterman was setting his sights on building a hundred trucks a year, concentrating on quality, not quantity. Factory records state that fourteen trucks were actually shipped that partial first year, and the 1940 production total for a whole year was eighty-two units. The incredible speed with which the Peterbilt truck gained acceptance in the trucking industry was a tribute to product quality. One major reason for this was that Peterman sent engineers out into the field to find out firsthand what truckers needed and wanted. Peterbilt engineers did not go to the drawing board until they'd gotten their boots dirty finding out exactly what was required of their design. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Peterbilt went into production of heavy duty trucks to fulfill government contracts. The engineering and production expertise gained from the design and production of these trucks enabled Peterbilt to return to commercial production after the war with the best trucks in the industry. Since that time, Peterbilt has weathered many storms, including Peterman's death in 1945, and come through them all with its products and reputation for quality intact. After Peterman's death, company ownership passed to his widow, Ida. She sold the assets, but not the underlying land, to a group of seven Peterbilt management employees with the purpose of preserving and expanding the company. But in 1958, Mrs. Peterman announced her plans to develop the plant site into a shopping center, and Peterbilt's owners were faced with the dilemma of raising two million dollars for a new plant. Since the owners, headed by president Lloyd Lundstrom, were approaching retirement age, and did not want to incur a large long term debt, they put the company up for sale. Paul Pigott of Pacific Car and Foundry showed an immediate interest and, on June 24, 1958, acquired Peterbilt Motors as a wholly-owned subsidiary. One year later, Pacific Car started construction of a modern 176,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Newark, California. In August, 1960 Peterbilt moved to the new facility, and that same year became a division of the parent firm, carrying on its own tradition, retaining its product intact, and continuing as one of Kenworth's stiffest competitors, even though both were now under the same ownership. During that first year at the new plant, Peterbilt delivered over 800 trucks. Due in part to Peterbilt's innovations, new models, and reputation for quality, sales steadily increased. Soon, the demand for Peterbilt trucks outstripped the plant's capacity. So, in 1969, Peterbilt built a second plant in Madison, Tennessee. The demand for Peterbilt trucks continued to grow, and in 1973 the Madison plant was expanded to double its production capacity, and that year saw over 8,000 Peterbilts delivered. Peterbilt of Canada was established in 1975. They are a marketing arm charged with supplying the Canadian market with Peterbilt products. The Canadian division has offices in Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, British Columbia. Peterbilt's newest assembly plant was completed in Denton, Texas in 1980.