Just about everyone remembers Pimp My Ride, which was a show on MTV that featured the rapper Xzibit and which ran on MTV for six seasons but is now forever embedded in the consciousness of America until the end of time. The show was totally ridiculous but still cool, as it featured a bunch of total beaters that were, in theory, modded and customized into a car that was totally cool. But what about Trick My Truck? How many of you remember this show that was on Country Music Television or CMT for short.

This show, like Pimp My Ride on steroids, featured a bunch of beat-up big rigs being customized into something that any cool dude would want to take out on the road, provided that you could handle something of that nature. But it wasn't just about some cool paint jobs and a lot of chrome; it was about showing the pride that the long-haul trucker had in their rides. The show premiered in February of 2006 and lasted for 5 seasons. The Chrome Shop Mafia takes in a truck that they say is deserving based on calls and letters from families and friends, then trick it out completely, including electronics enhancements, paint jobs, sound systems, mechanical upgrades to tires, exhaust pipes, and so on. Here are 20 things you forgot about Trick My Truck.

20 It Was on CMT

Via www.dvd-game-new-releases.info

The whole aspect of this show being on Country Music Television was kind of amusing in the first place. MTV had a huge hit on its hands with Pimp My Ride, which was a show that featured all sorts of people wanting their car modded out and even featured a famous rapper as a host. That might play with some crowds but not people who were into CMT. Trick My Truck managed to steal some of the thunder of Pimp My Ride just by mocking its name but appealed to a crowd more interested in Jeff Foxworthy than Dr. Dre.

19 They Would Pimp Out Big Rigs

Via 10-4 Magazine

When one thinks of a big rig that's driven by a long-haul trucker, one doesn't usually get the feeling that it's going to look cool, but Trick My Truck had a goal to make that totally different. The whole thing was really about trucker pride. A lot of us don't know anything about long-haul truckers or their culture, and we never think of them taking great pride in their rig or that it would be something they thought could even possibly look cool, but Trick My Truck let the rest of us know how much these guys loved their rigs and how much pride they had in them.

18 They Pick People They Think Are Most Deserving

Via Ryno Templeton

There's a lot of talk on shows of this nature of how the hosts and producers pick out someone who's deserving, but a lot of the time, that's just lip service. Not so on Trick My Truck. O

ne of the hosts, Rob Richardson, said, "Well, it’s not so much the truck we’re looking at. It’s the driver, you know, and their deserving-ness."

This would be the kind of thing that you'd never believe on a show like Pimp My Ride, but again, it really is about the culture of the truck driver. These guys really do stick together and try to help each other out.

17 They Always Finish The Jobs They Start

Via Ryno Templeton

When you look at some of the trucks on the show, you might think that, on occasion, someone on the show might just decide that it's too much to handle and that they might just give up, but not on Trick My Truck. They get the job done no matter what. The audio technician on the show, Rod Pickett, said, "No way. We always finish the jobs. There’s [sic]some projects sometimes that slow us down. But most times, we always get them done. There’s [sic] always problems with every job, but when it comes down to due time, they’re always finished."

16 The Producers Came to Them

Via Flickr

When you see shows of this nature, you always wonder what came first—did the hosts go to Country Music Television and ask to do a show, or did the producers think of a show and then go looking for hosts? According to Pickett, it was the producers who came looking for them. He said, "We were at a truck show, and producers come to us looking for guys that build trucks. Kind of the right place at the right time type of thing, really. But there ain’t a lot of people who build trucks, as far as for business-wise, and we were one of them. We hooked up from there."

15 The Hosts Were Already Friends

Via Pinterest

One can usually tell on shows of this nature whether or not the hosts really know each other and get along well or if it's the kind of thing where they're just acting like friends for the cameras. On Trick My Truck, the hosts were already friends. Pickett says "Yeah, we’d met a few times at truck shows, kind of that camaraderie between truck builders. And we’d been to Dallas, Louisville and a couple other shows. We’d hang out at the shows and talk about building trucks. But, of course, the last couple years, we’ve become really close."

14 Chrome Shop Mafia Is Still Around

Via Chrome Shop Mafia

If you happen to be in Missouri and want one of your big rigs customized, you might want to check out the Chrome Shop Mafia, who were the guys behind Trick My Truck. According to their website, "The Chrome Shop Mafia appeared in the first 41 episodes before deciding to move back to its roots… the 'Everyday Trucker.' We felt like the show had started to drift away from big rigs, which is the life of CSM! Once our creative freedoms were limited and we could no longer ensure that the trucks being built on the show were cool, stylish, and practical for the drivers to operate year round on the road, it was time for the CSM gang to move on!"

13 They Started the Business to Help the Trucker Image

Via Chrome Shop Mafia

As we've said before, the guys behind Trick My Truck weren't just in it for the money or fame.

These guys actually really cared about the work they did, and they were also really concerned with the trucker image.

They truly loved the work that they did on the show.  Richardson had this to say: "Well, you know, everybody has a bad image on trucking … the whole image of trucks out there. So we wanted to put a positive spin on that and show that these drivers are actual people with everyday lives. They’re just like you and I. They just drive a truck for a living."

12 Rob Richardson Passed Away

Via CMT.com

Sadly, one of the hosts of the show, Rob Richardson, passed away at a very young age.  According to CMT, "Rob Richardson, a cast member during all five seasons of CMT’s Trick My Truck, died Sunday night (which was December 7) of an apparent heart attack at his home in Webb City, Missouri. He was 41."

Richardson left behind his wife Heather and two daughters named "Makala" and "Meagan Pippin." This is truly a sad thing, as Richardson wasn't only way too young to pass away; he also could've been a leader in the trucking and customizing community for years to come.

11 They Drag Race and Work on Bikes, Too

Via 10-4 Magazine

Obviously, the Trick My Truck crew totally knew what they were doing when it came to trucks, but like a lot of people who are into working on vehicles, that wasn't the only thing that they worked on. According to Pickett, "Me [sic] and my brother drag race. We’re finishing a Harley we’re building right now. There’s Rob, he’s working on different things—cars and stereo stuff and all that. But as far as doing the show, we’re pretty much stuck here doing this." Okay, but we have to admit a lot of people would love to be stuck doing what you guys were doing.

10 They've Been Doing This Work all Their Lives

Via 10-4 magazine

Sometimes, you wonder with these types of shows—did the hosts start doing the work because they thought it would lead to money and fame, or is it something they've been doing all their lives? Richardson answered that question by saying, "I grew up around it. Me [sic] and my brother were born into trucks, so we were, from day one, into trucks. Always were around them, always tinkering with them. … So it’s kind of the only thing we’ve ever done." I guess that answers that question—there's no doubt these guys are the real deal.

9 They Try to Mod The Truck to the Driver's Personality

Via Youtube

When it comes to modifying or customizing a truck—or anything else for that matter—how would you do it? Would you do it the way that you wanted it to look or the way that the customer wanted it done? The Trick My Truck guys were all about the customer for sure.  Pickett said, "We try to find out what the driver’s into and sort of spin off on that somewhat. …We kind of take that, run with it and put our own little twist to it. But as far as once we get a theme going, we sort of feed off of each other for ideas. One thing plays into another."

8 They Know Their Stuff

Via Custom Rigs magazine

When it comes to doing work of this nature, especially when it comes to working with long-haul truck drivers, there's no doubt that the crew of Trick My Truck really knows what they're doing. This isn't just some guy who has a really cool 1967 Alfa Romeo Zagato sitting in his garage all winter who wants it to look even cooler than it already does. Trick My Truck is a show that customizes vehicles that are their drivers' livelihoods; in fact, some drivers even live in their vehicles a lot of the time. Obviously, the crew needs to know what they're doing, as this is a tough crowd.

7 They Do Custom Work

Via RC Truck and Construction

Obviously, the Chrome Shop Mafia does custom work. In fact, when they were doing the show, they pretty much had to stop doing it, at least for a while. Pickett said of doing custom work, "Yeah, we definitely do now. Right now, we’re so slammed with this, we’re kind of at a standstill. But definitely, we want to get more into that when the show ends or slows down." That's really the thing when it comes to television, especially when you're dealing with car shows. A lot of these guys are so good at what they do, they'd make more money if they weren't on TV.

6 One Host Learned From His Dad

Via NewsOK

You might think that these guys learned from a master, but as a matter of fact, one host learned because he had a dad who knew a lot about vehicles and didn't have enough money to hire someone else to help. Pickett said, "On the stuff that we do, me [sic] and my brother learned from my dad. We grew up in it, so we were in the shop. That got us going in the right direction. And then everything else … we’ve never had the money to hire anything out, so we’ve always done everything ourselves. After doing so much for so long, you start getting pretty good at it."

5 A lot of the Mechanical Work is too Boring to Show

Via Pinterest

Everyone knows that being a good mechanic is what working on cars is all about, but when it comes to a show like Trick My Truck, everyone wants to just see the modifications, not what was done beneath the hood. Pickett has this to say, "We do mechanical work, but the majority of it we don’t film because it’s boring for the audience to watch us fixing airlines or doing that. It’s not like we build the truck top to bottom, front to back. We’d have it six months at a time and $300,000 in it to do brand-new everything." Yeah, Trick My Truck for 300 Grand doesn't have the same ring to it.

4 One Time, They Did an Ice Cream Truck

Via ClubxB

If you want to get your truck tricked out, one would think that you'd be driving a big rig or, at the least, a really powerful pickup truck of some kind. But an ice cream truck? Come on... you've got to be kidding me. But you know... anything to make a truck driver happy or, in this case, anything to get ratings. The guys tricked out an ice cream truck on one episode, and although it did come out looking pretty cool, I don't know how much job satisfaction the crew got out of it. Not only that, but you know the kids are just running after the truck because they're jonesing for ice cream, no matter what it looks like.

3 They Used a Gas-Powered Blender

Via YouTube

Blenders are cool, right? There are all sorts of cool things you can make with a blender, from frozen drinks to smoothies. You can even make milkshakes.  You know what else is cool? Gas-powered engines. It's too bad you can't have a blender with a gas-powered engine. Oh, except they had one on Trick My Truck. Pickett said, "We actually got it online. There’s a bunch of different places that make them. They take a Weed Eater motor and adapt a kit to the top of it. So there ain’t just one manufacturer that makes one. I’m not even sure who it is we got ours from, but you can find them online."

2 They Love Country Music

Via Billboard

One would hope that if you were on Country Music television, you'd actually like country music. Well don't worry, the guys on Trick My Truck don't disappoint. When Richardson was asked who his favorite country music artists were, he said, "I’ve got a few of them. Big & Rich, of course. There’s [sic] some new guys. I met Kenny Chesney at the awards show [the 2006 CMT Music Awards]. He was pretty cool. I’m a big Trace Adkins fan … Toby Keith." Looks like these dudes are legit—like anyone could have had any doubt.

1 It Was On For Five Seasons

Via Overdrive

There are a lot of auto shows that are a lot more famous than Trick My Truck, but there's no doubt that this show left its mark. First of all, it lasted for a whole 5 seasons; they made 55 episodes in all. Those are a lot of big rigs getting modded and customized, especially when you're talking about a show that doesn't really fit in with the general population all that well. Just about everyone wants a cool-looking car, but does everyone want a cool-looking 18-wheeler? Trick My Truck made us think that possibly a lot of us actually do.

Sources: cmt.com; chromeshopmafia.com