Robinson Transport readies major vintage truck collection for Las Vegas sale

Ritchie Bros. is honored to feature a selection of over 45 vintage trucks from the private collection of Robinson Transport, Inc at our Las Vegas June 13 auction. These rare trucks have been kept in pristine condition at Robinson’s storage facility in Salina, UT.

We sat down with the owner, Kim Robinson, to discuss his incredible offering of classic and vintage trucks coming for sale on June 13.  

Kim, what’s the story behind your incredible collection of vintage trucks?

My dad got the original truck, a 1934 International, and he fixed that up and restored it. And then he decided he wanted to go further, so he just started collecting trucks and fixing them when he retired. He had a couple of other guys that helped him out and they just built like 60 trucks.

Looking at these trucks, they’re amazing and you can see that there’s been quite a bit of work put into them. Is there one or two trucks that have had maybe a little more work or extra work done than others?

Yeah, it would probably be the two tanker trucks that’s probably had the most delicate work and stuff done to them. And one being buffed out all aluminum. But he liked to fix them all to the original state or get them as close to it as he could. They spent a lot of time on probably 90% of them, trying to get them back to the original state.

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What makes these trucks unique or rare in the collector world?

Some of these trucks have been in films with famous movie stars. There are some that they only made 4 of, and some that are so old that they were Fageol before it turned into Peterbilt. There are even some that are chain driven.

My dad received an award for being in business for over 50 years and for having over 50 trucks individually owned by him. There are a lot of museums that probably has more trucks than that, but his were all his personal outfits and he had over 50 of them.

Which one of these trucks has the most sentimental value to you and why?

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Probably the 1974 Peterbilt Wrecker because I drove that truck when I first came to work here. We liked it so much and it was a good truck. We used to do all our own wrecker services and we used to do it for the public too. I had a lot of different experiences in that truck and a lot of great memories from it.

Why did you choose to sell through Ritchie Bros.? And where do you hope some of these trucks go next?

I chose to go with Ritchie Bros. because I’ve sold through them previously and my father had as well. They have reach that we don’t have – in different states, different countries. I hope that the people who purchase these trucks love them. I hope they continue to keep them in order and run them around or take them to shows or whatever they want to do with it. I just hope they have a strong passion for it, and I hope it makes them happy.

Do you have any advice to anybody who is interested in purchasing one of these trucks or, you know, perhaps maybe somebody who’s looking to start their own antique truck collection.

Yes, I think that if they get a truck they like or buy one, then go all in on it. You know, fix it up and get it like you want it, and use it and drive it. Get it out that the public can see it. A lot of people like to see these things and I think sometimes we get too involved in it and get too many of them, and then we don’t get them all fixed up the way we want them. And I know that was a passion of my dad’s. But now this next generation, my children, they don’t really want to have that many trucks, so they’re going to keep some, but not many. So yeah, I think just go all in with you got and build from there.

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