Kent Carson is our November/December 2023 Rig of the Month. His name was sent to me by David at Wowtrucks.com. Kent will be featured in the 2024 Wow Trucks Calendar. This is his story:

I was the firstborn of 3 children to Irvin and Mary-Ann Carson. I was born on March 27, 1974. I have two sisters, Collette Carson and Louise Sroka. We were born and raised on a 3000-acre farm just north of Maidstone, Saskatchewan. We all attended school in Maidstone and considered that our hometown even though we grew up on the farm. My Dad's parents, Earl and Vernie Carson, also lived on the family farm. Grandpa and Granny (we weren't allowed to call her anything but Granny) played a huge role in our growing up.

Most of my childhood saw me heavily involved in 4H, along with my parents and sisters. Collette and I always had an ongoing competition between us. My mother is still very active in 4H to this day. In 1991-1992, I and some other boys my age (17) started a rodeo project in 4H with my Dad as our leader. We tried our hand at team roping, calf roping and steer wrestling. Dad and I also team roped together outside of 4H in the Midwest Assoc for 2-3 years. I rode my Dad's old buckskin, Chance, and won a couple of belt buckles.

Being raised on the farm left us no choice but to be involved in all aspects of farming, including running machinery and trucks. I started operating machinery very young, but my love was for the trucks. When I was nine, I was finally entrusted to drive from field to farm! Until then, it was always riding along with Dad or Grandpa, either in the field or hauling into town for the farm and a few other farmers my grandpa custom hauled for. Everything we owned was "stick shift," so pardon the pun when I say shifting gears was in my blood.

Dad and Grandpa owned two old Ford trucks, a 2-ton from the early 50's and a 3-ton from the early 60's. Often, school was placed second in priority when it came to farming. If I was needed on the farm, that's where I was.

Grandpa custom hauled for some neighbours into the 70’s and always encouraged me to do the same, "get your class 1, and you can do this for a living," he would say. After Grandpa retired from custom hauling, my Dad took over for 2 or 3 years. I'll never forget when I was nine years old and I was given the privilege of driving from field to farm. Grandpa had been teaching me the ropes but forgot to tell me how to shut off the pump for the hoist, and I wrapped the hydraulic lines around the drive shaft. Grandpa was not too popular that day. Downtime for repairs is never high on the "happy list" for farmers at harvest!!