Mafia Secrets – June 2021
In this modern day of most show trucks being Peterbilt or Kenworth, it is very refreshing to break your neck watching a slick ride roll by and notice that it’s a Freightliner.
Well, that is exactly what you’ll say when you meet Matt Benusches and his mega-sharp 2007 Classic XL Freightliner Condo. He hails from Tennessee and pulls dry goods and refrigerated freight all over the 48 states with a primary focus on the central and southeast regions of the country.
We met Matt nearly 10 years ago and instantly sparked up a friendship in conjunction with our customer-supplier relationship. He is not only witty and friendly, but Matt is very outgoing and willing to share his political views, in which we share a lot of common concerns and have many of the same opinions.
Back in the day, when we first encountered Matt – get this – the same truck you see featured here was bright red. The truck was red when he bought it used back in 2011, and he drove it for many years in that state.
Even back then Benusches was meticulous about his truck’s condition and appearance. He always had custom bumpers, fenders, stacks, visor, light panels and the works on his truck, regardless of whether it was painted red or blue. His truck was generally always sparkling clean.
Over the course of the last four years, he has transformed his Classic XL into the cool and unique ride you see here. 
Like many of our readers, Matt works this truck daily and aggressively racks up lots of miles.
He has overhauled the 500 horsepower Series 60 Detroit engine three times and racks up serious miles each and every year. To kick off the makeover, Matt stretched the frame to give the truck more attitude and a better stance. Next he had us install a Jones TrukRodz hood and do a 100% complete custom paint job on the truck: three-color paint, marbleized effect on the stripes, and even the chassis paint was laid down as smooth as a baby’s butt, as they say. He claims he gets more comments about the paint color, design and quality of the refinish job as he does any other single feature about the truck.
Immediately after the truck was repainted, he freshened up pretty much all the exterior accessories – new 7-inch chrome pipes, new bumper, Hogebuilt fenders, new cab and sleeper light bars, as well as air cleaner lights. Cody and the boys in our fab shop not only did a lot of custom stainless on the frame covers, rear sleeper trim and chassis panels, but they worked with Benusches to fabricate a one-off aluminum drop sun visor that hasn’t been duplicated since.
The painted visor was the perfect touch to wrap up the project, but not being one to stop short, he recently had Arroyo from California add air bags to the steer axle, which took the cool factor to the next level.
It has indeed been a pleasure working with and visiting with Matt over the long time span he has been stopping, shopping and seeing us.
Sometimes he gets tired of the same ol’ Freightliner jokes that his buddies throw at him, but he is a good sport and actually appreciates a cool Pete or KW as much as any of us. No one can deny the 84-inch bunk and the proven design of this particular body style was a winner as it pertains to dependability, longevity and comfort. And largely due to Matt’s vision, design and eye for accessorizing, this “Freight Shaker” will be catching mucho-grande attention everywhere he rolls! LL