Stuart was on hand with trucking troubadour Leland Martin, who performed Saturday afternoon and whose latest record is something of a tribute to Stuart, a longtime 359 fanatic (all of his four-truck Offset System Service hauling & rigging operation’s trucks are show-quality 359s). As I’ve written here before, Martin and Stuart met at a past edition of the Walcott Truckers Jamboree at Iowa 80, forming a friendship to last. Martin wrote the “Workin’ Class” title track of his record in homage to Stuart, and the rest is history.
Stuart conceived of the truck way back in the late 1970s as a young Pete 359 enthusiast likewise enthralled by the then-relatively-new Kenworth Aerodyne sleeper design — he did an artistic rendering of his dream truck, a combination of the two, in that time period. Decades passed, during which Stuart learned his way around a rig (and an airbursh, he says). With his offset-printing-service business going gangbusters mid-last decade, he finally decided to make his dream a reality. He found the base 359, bought two Aero 1 sleepers from 4 State Trucks in Joplin, Mo., and began the process of building what would become Working Class.
With the sleeper mostly finished, Stuart says, the installer got a bit of a treat, calling it “the coolest job” he’d ever been a part of. I’d say so.
In any case, enjoy the pics of the rig in the gallery below, and look forward to further reporting on it down the line.