Owner-operator Jerry Knowles, based in Tyrone, Georgia, owns this 2000 Peterbilt 379 and runs it part-time as part of his 15-truck auto-parts-hauling operation.
Jerry and his father, Joe, started the Knowles Trucking business in 1980, with each of them buying their own truck. Together, they would haul out to California and back in those early years.
The business grew through the years and, at one time, Knowles Trucking had more than 40 trucks in its fleet and was run by Joe, Jerry and his two brothers. Jerry and his son, Jody, maintain the operation today at 15 trucks, mostly running from Tyrone to South Texas and back.
Knowles said business has been “pretty steady” in recent years, despite challenges seen during the pandemic in the auto parts industry.
“It hasn’t affected us a lot,” he said. “We’ve been pretty steady in the boat. Our little bit doesn’t get affected a whole lot either way. If it’s good, people buy parts to fix up stuff” as projects, “and if it’s bad, then they buy parts to fix up stuff they got to keep it going.”
The 2000 Peterbilt 379 in the video up top was bought new by Joe, who hauled in it until he passed away in 2010. Jerry took ownership of it at that point.
“It’s a pretty nice old truck,” Jerry said. “He kept it up good, and we’ve been trying to keep it up since.”
“Pretty nice old truck,” indeed. Knowles has made some custom adds to the rig over the years, including the Peterbilt Pride & Class grille, a custom visor and windshield trim and more.
Jerry Knowles and company showed the rig at the Guilty by Association Truck Show in Joplin, Missouri, back in September. The truck today is mostly a show truck, though it does work about 20,000 miles a year, Jerry said. All told, the truck boasts around 1.7 million miles on the odometer. “We’ve just been playing with it lately,” he added.
Under the hood is a 525-hp Cummins N14, original to the truck, with an 18-speed.
The interior of the truck is still original, and Jerry said it “still looks brand new.” He’s thought about redoing it, “but when it looks so good, it’s hard to mess it up.”
The paint scheme on the rig is mostly original, though Jerry did have it repainted to freshen it up.
One change made to the paint when Jerry had it redone was the addition of a red pinstripe to set off the other colors, as can be seen here on the rear fender.
[Related: Owner-op Marlin Coblentz’s ‘old-school style’ ’86 Pete 359]
Catch plenty more views of the truck in the video up top. For more videos and custom-equipment features delivered to your email inbox, subscribe to Overdrive’s weekly Custom Rigs newsletter via this link.
Jerry Knowles: Jerry Knowles, Knowles Trucking out of Tyrone, Georgia. Me and my father started the business in 1980. We run about 15, 20 trucks out of Tyrone there, hauling auto parts to South Texas, and then rebuilt stuff back up mostly.
Well, we started out, I bought one and he bought one, and we run back and forth to California. And we just started getting more and more business, and it kind of just snowballed on up.
At one time, we was running like 40 trucks. Our two brothers were helping a while back, but now we’re down to 15 trucks and me and my son are running them.
That’s a 2000 Peterbilt. My father got it new and he drove it all the way up to when he died, and then I got it. We had it repainted and all, by Peterbilt in Joplin here, and we haven’t been doing a whole lot of work with it. We still work it every once in a while, but not very often. But it’s just a pretty nice little truck.He kept it up good and we’ve been trying to keep it up ever since.
It’s the same color scheme he had. Only thing that was added was little bitty red stripes in there, and they just done that to highlight it a little bit. But yeah, it was the same way ever since it was new.
Really what Peterbilt done to it, it’s the only custom. It’s pretty much stocked. We added a sun visor. What you could see there, the sun visors and the windshield trim, the rear fenders. But other than that… Well, it’s got custom front fenders too, just… Oh, we put the Pride and Class Grill stuff on it. Yeah, we upgraded a little bit there. Try to spice it up a little.
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