bACK IN THE DAY, PERFORMANCE DIESELS were not something many if anyone talked about. Sure OTR drivers did, some tractor puller types did, but fewer than that did. Of course this was just at the cusp of everything from John Deere's to Volkswagons going diesel or as club member Terry Junkert called em drizzles. it was also shortly after the Dukes was finally pulled from CBS' TV's rotational line up(cancelled). So thought was what would good old Cooter do now? Would he continue to build hot rods or go innovative and build custom trucks and hot rod diesels? The answer ? Hot rod performance diesels. It was in 1989, I was trucking through St. George Utah and saw a name that would not go away from my brain. See I had been tinkering with rebuilding diesel engines in VW's and light trucks for nearly a year, but just could not wrap my head around a good name for a light duty diesel shop. So I had to stop to piss and grab a soda, and right there across the street from this small stop and rob store there. It read Dixie Diesel Service and Towing. Some rework there and in 1992 the official Dixie Diesel Shop of Idaho opened its doors in Pocatello Idaho. But it would not be until 1993 in Rupert that the idea of a full blown super rig shop and of course the Hazzard-ized trucker radio network would come into play.
See by this time, I had got married, Too bad to the wrong woman, and was living in Paul Idaho.
The Dixie Diesel Shop as I saw it was the evolution of the Hazzard County Garage or at least part there of. Performance diesels and an all truck super shop that built custom rigs was seen. But not yet done. Long before the Chrome Shop Mafia and others were even a spit in the wind, what Cooter did in Hazzard County at the Hazzard County Garage did for the Duke boys and hot rod gear heads , the Dixie Diesel Shop would do for otr truckers and owner/operator gear jammers. But it was at this point through protest I had moved in part to Murray Utah. There, couldn't do big rigs yet there, but small automotive and light duty diesels really did not have a fix it specialty shop. The few dealerships that did repair them, usually had to farm out most of if not all intense parts overhauls, like injector pumps, nozzles etc. I had to go to Price Utah to do a service job for a Sheep farmer on an old JD, rig when I heard this gig on the local radio station there KOAL, AM was running then the ITRN. found out though that ITRN was going dark, some conversations and ITRN, became through our organizations purchase there of the Dixie Diesel Trucker Radio Network, and of course the Hazzard-ized otr truckers radio show Dixie Diesel Radio. Dixie Diesel rolled out of the then KBBK, out of Rupert Idaho, but they too were going belly up, so after we had opened our station there, licensed to the city of Minidoka, Idaho, KOTR (now KNAK of Wyoming) and that's where and when I discovered Robin. At least my Robin. She was the most stunning and sexiest woman I had ever known and still gives me dreams of extreme Heavenly thoughts today. She was one that could be thinking anything even across the valley and I would be tuned right in. It was not unusual to find us both at the shop/studio with the same idea on a show idea, at 2:00am. She could finish my thoughts, sentences, and more. Should have axed me and Janice, married Robin and one helluva lot of problems and money retention would have resulted. But hind sight is always 20/20. Thanks to me Robin now works for a major PR Firm in New York City at 5 times what I make, now, and she still sends me holiday and other greeting cards.
Many companies, from BullyDog to many others owe the Dixie Diesel Shop a lot of kudos and thanks for their even being in business. As it was the Dixie Diesel Shop, pioneered the concept of performance hot rod diesels. With that in mind let me introduce you to the newest addition to our company The Dixie Diesel Shop of Evanston Wyoming.
A full on super shop of Super rigs and pulling Deere's. To add to that now ya'll can tune in to what we do on Dixie Diesel Radio at www.livestream.com/dixiedieselradio Truckin radio done Hazzard County Style.
That's the story of Dixie Diesel Radio and our Dixie Diesel Shop, many copies, we are still the original.
TTYLY
