Chris and Ruth Smith were named Overdrive's Truckers of the Month for February 2023. Read more about their business here in an updated profile on the team owner-operators.
Chris and Ruth Smith's 2020 Peterbilt 389 was purpose-built for airline-industry support leased to Southern Pride Trucking. The rig and its paired 48-foot step deck were named champs in
Chris and Ruth Smith have been "getting back into normality" when it comes to operating since "about the beginning of the year" as freight has picked back up in their business, leased for several years now to Southern Pride Trucking, Chris said. The company specializes in aircraft engines, parts and ground support for the airline industry.
"By the beginning of the year we were flat-out, and never stopped," Chris said. "We never used to get anywhere near having to run on recapped hours," until this year. "I’m not complaining, since 2020 was such a disaster."
The pair, it's worth noting, had the perfect rig to ride out the slowdown, though. Their 2020 Peterbilt 389, Beverly II, named after Chris's sister who passed in 2002 and a successor rig to Beverly I, sports a 192-inch behemoth of an ARI custom sleeper with all the comforts of home on the interior. The pair scored first place in Overdrive's 2021 Pride & Polish custom rigs competition's Working Combo, 2001 & Newer category.
The Smiths spec'd the rig from the factory with a 380-inch wheelbase to accommodate the sleeper, and bore witness to the entire process from the Peterbilt factory in Texas to Shipshewana, Indiana, where the sleeper was built and added.
All told, the exterior length of the sleeper is 192 inches, the interior at 180. That's 15 feet of length to fit all those creature comforts, including a rear fold-down bed that the pair wanted to increase sleeping comfort while rolling. Their previous rig, a 2016 579 with a shorter sleeper, featured the bed folding down from the side of the sleeper.
