Like many an owner-operator today, Cobleskill, New York-based Clifford Hay II was born and raised in the trucking industry.
His father was an owner-operator who started the family business in 1972. Hay rode with his dad as early as age 2 and “always loved trucks” growing up, he said. He got his CDL in 1985 and has been trucking steadily for the last 39 years.
After 14 years behind the wheel, in 1999, Hay bought his father’s Clifford C. Hay Inc. business. At the time, it was but a one-truck, one-trailer outfit. Today, Hay owns six trucks and 30 trailers, hauling hay, lumber and dry van freight, mostly operating in the Northeast and up into Canada.
Hay bought his first brand-new truck in 2007 -- a limited-edition Peterbilt 379 Legacy, No. 326 of 1,000 in that last year for the model -- but in 2010, his garage burned down and took that truck and four others with it. “I kind of lost everything,” he said.
The Peterbilt dealership he bought that Legacy through helped him track down another one, No. 128 of 1,000. It was located in Louisiana, but had never been registered and had just 275 miles on it. Hay jumped at the opportunity buy it. “It was basically a brand-new truck because it was only 3 years old and only had 275 miles.”
He worked it for a number of years -- until around 2020, when he decided to retire it and build it into a show truck. “The past four years, I’ve been slowly making it into a show truck. It doesn’t run wintertime anymore or anything.”
That effort has paid off, as Hay’s 2007 Peterbilt 379 Legacy was selected by Overdrive readers as the 2024 Pride & Polish champ in the Limited Mileage category.
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Hay has added numerous custom touches to the rig, described in more detail below.
The decision to pull the truck off the road for the build makes good on a longtime dream of the owner's. And with just 328,000 miles on the rig, he wanted to keep the mileage low.
“I’ve always dreamed of having a show truck, and the Legacies, they only made a thousand of them,” he said. “The 379 Peterbilt is my favorite model of Peterbilts. It would have been the first new truck I’ve ever owned in my life, so it kind of meant something to me that way. So when I knew I could retire it, I retired it.”
Today, the truck mostly just goes to truck shows and, for the last six years, has hauled The Wall That Heals, the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Fund’s touring replica of the memorial in Washington, D.C.
Hay's rig is shown here pulling the rolling memorial. “For me, I think that’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever done, and a way to give back to the people that served our country and the Vietnam veterans,” Hay said. “They deserve something like this.”
He said he heard about the program through an ad on Sirius XM radio when the organization was having trouble finding volunteers, needing a specific truck set-up to haul it. “They built a new one that has a huge generator on the front, and you need to have at least 92 inches between the trailer and the cab so it doesn’t hit your truck, and they were struggling,” Hay said. “I knew my truck could do that, and I volunteered." He's been pulling the memorial since 2018.
Hay's added numerous stainless-steel accessories from Shift Products, including side panels, air cleaners, a drop visor, battery box, toolbox and bumper. He’s added lights all around, an aluminum fifth wheel and flat glass windshield, amongother additions.
The rig’s interior features a custom Rockwood dash and door panels. His next addition: a Rockwood hardwood floor to match the dash and door panels.
The truck lights up in blue at night.
“Every year I try to add a little bit to it,” Hay noted.
Under the hood, the 550-hp Cat features a chrome Dynaflex air intake and chrome valve covers, and a stainless air intake, “so it’s all polished.”
The amount of work Hay has put into the rig is evident all around, with polished parts making the truck shine.
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