Family Tradition: Howland Haulage VTC log

[Twisted1013]

Hello and welcome to my first thread here! A little IRL background before I give the backstory on my VTC. My dad drove OTR for almost 25 years until he retired around 2010. Growing up I spent most of my summers and was even homeschooled on the road for couple of years all throughout the 90s and just loved every part of it. Now that I’m pushing 40 and have a good career in healthcare I do yearn for some of the nostalgia of the trucking era of my youth and thanks to some wonderful mods like Harven’s FLB and Overfloaters K100E I have that since both of those rigs I spent plenty of time in as a child. I also have a small obsession with Aussie style mods thanks to watching too much Outback Truckers on Netflix and the real fact that my dad was almost one himself. Back in 1998 the company he was working for (Arctic Express out of Ohio) wanted him and a few others to go to Darwin area and run the mining roadtrains for about six months. Ultimately he didn’t because he couldn’t bring or my mom along with him but the possibility has always fascinated me.

So with that out of the way here’s the backstory to “Howland Haulage”, it’s a what of my dad did go to Darwin and we went and stayed there for more than six months and he eventually started his own company with his own equipment. We come to present day and I’ve lived back in the states now for a good 15 years doing my own thing. Dad rings me up and wants to start things back over here in the states after his previous guy over here mucked it all up. I pack up my things and we go out to Elko Nevada where pop found a decent garage for me to start. After he sends me a good chunk of money I decided then and there Howland Haulage will take it back to good old days. I found a decent 1993 Freightliner FLB with a matching reefer and I bought a couple more trailers and got ready to start hauling.

The day the FLB and reefer was all finished up. Debating if I’m keeping the yellow paint.
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Leaving Walmart in Elko on the first run up to Idaho
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First fill-up at Love’s and had to grab some mudflaps for the trailer after something on the road ripped one
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Decided to load up some wood chips to go up to Port of Seattle. Going up the log road in the dead of night in the middle of a thunderstorm equaled sooo much fun (more like white knuckle controller driving)
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On the plus side the drive up to Seattle was absolutely beautiful.
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I have to thank my wife who as a graduation present last week got me a brand new MSI gaming laptop to replace the decade old HP laptop I had been trying to play ATS to little luck. Will be posting more soon!

[Twisted1013]

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Got a good deal on an Alutrec flatbed the previous owner left abandoned at a truck stop outside Elko before going back to Canada. Cleaned it up painted to match and threw on some extra Freightliner slots I had in the garage.

[Twisted1013]

Well after hearing “hey tweety bird ya go your ears on” on the CB one too many times I decided it was time to make the truck more of my own. Repainted it in a nice burgundy and decided to put the chrome bumper and the turbo wing in the garage for a bit and see if I could get some more MPG with the fairing. After spending the money to get the work done I needed to get the wheels turning again even in the snow. Got a line on Christmas gifts that needed delivering that paid well so took the load from Elko up to Boise.

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Beautiful trip btw
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[Twisted1013]

Decided to do some tanker hauling with my Tremec tanker I bought. Went to load up some molasses and they assured me my truck would go under the beam with no problem buuuttt they were wrong

So hindsight it actually does look better

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Got back to the yard at Elko when pops rang me up. He decided to send me over a tipper b-double trailer from Australia over. Now to get a permit from Nevada saying it’s just a regular ol double trailer .

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[Twisted1013]

Winter in Spokane just looks beautiful.

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After I got back to Elko I got the call I had been waiting for, the FLB is going in the shop for a really awesome makeover. Until then I rented this Cascadia from Penske because I’ve been wanting to try one of these rigs out.

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(Btw thank you @Trucker_71 on making the detailed Penske skin!)

[SmokeyWolf]

Nice story!

[Twisted1013]

@LB71490 Thank you!

Been doing some runs with the rental truck and I gotta say I’m impressed with the Cascadia. It’s efficient, has good power and looks good inside and out and with the right looks could be a proper custom rig. Whenever I decided to expand the fleet with a more modern rig I’m definitely going to look into one.

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On the way back to Elko from Burns, OR I got the call that the FLB was ready to be picked up . Can’t wait to see the makeover!

[Twisted1013]

Got back to Elko and got my first look at my FLB redone. Turns out pop flew our signage guy in Darwin over to give the ol girl a proper look.
Huge thanks to @WeeScottishLass for taking all my designs and seamlessly creating the skin for me.

Class of ‘93
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Howland Haulage proudly displayed on the door
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Wicked is my wife’s gamer tag btw
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Decided to name her the “Detroit Shaker”
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Keep Cruisin’ is something I’ve used on my IG page a lot and just thought it’s perfect here. Overall I’m extremely happy with the look and I’m looking forward to some hard-earned miles behind the wheel.

[Twisted1013]

Hope everyone had a happy New Years!

Been extremely busy at my hospital but I’ve managed to get some runs out before the end of the year.

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Decided to give the Detroit Shaker a real first test by doing my first oversized load. 98K lb water tank from Payette to Twin Falls and she handled it pretty well.


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From Twin Falls took a hot load of late Christmas gifts to Walmart in Burns, Oregon. It was here I noticed a few things from the rebuild I wasn’t too happy with. They seemed to have misinterpreted me wanting something “old school” as let’s build it like that one shop in the Midwest does. Pipes turned out to be waaayy too tall to the point I puckered up my cheeks clearing any overpasses and the sun visor was so low that even with afromentioned cheeks sitting all the way on the floor I still couldn’t see worth a dang out the windshield and even got pulled over by Oregon highway patrol thinking I was some child that took a big rig out for a joy ride (why did I have to shave my beard at the last Love’s ?).


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So as the saying goes when you want something done right do it yourself. Threw the shorty pipes back on because even though they’re not straight pipes that 500hp DD60 still sings like a Queen. Changed out the visor to something a bit more subtle and tossed out a handful of the chicken lights to clean the cab up a little.

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She cleans up nicely. Finished 2021 on a really good note!

[SmokeyWolf]

FLB looks good the way it is.