At RealTruckers, we know your truck is your home away from home, and your office all rolled into one. Whether you’ve got your truck completely customized with every gadget and road-ruling tool you can think of, or your style is simple and functional, it’s your world and hey - you’re living in it. But how far would you really take tricking out your truck?
You know the ones that cannot help but scream “look at me, I’m fabulous,” while smacking your eyeballs into the back of your skull as soon as you see them, yep, think those couches.
Now let’s picture your entire truck cab completely covered in those kinds of fabric and they’re spilling out of every corner and crevice no matter where you look!
Well, imagine living your life on the road - eating, sleeping, and breathing inside four truck cab walls chock full of funky fabrics every. single. day. I’m gagging just thinking about what a paisley prison that would be!
No one does that to themselves on purpose, right? Well, I’d be wrong, dead wrong. So, back in the late 70’s- to early 90’s in Japan, this truck decorating craze was all the rage. They called it dekotora, which literally means "to decorate." Believe it or not, it was crazy popular and yes, you should totally google it. Those pictures speak way more than 1,000 words, or bring up 1,000 questions.
But many Japanese truckers decorated their trucks in this flamboyant form, in hopes that their truck would be chosen to use in films that are best described as – The Fast and the Furious for Japanese truckers.
Although, this craze isn’t so mainstream anymore, there are still quite a few die-hard fans who achieved their dream of stardom, but in a totally different way. Blinged out, big rigs left over from the dekotora-style days still serve as a great way to attract attention – but now, it’s not about the waves of fame, it’s about the waves of destruction left behind by tsunamis and other natural disasters.
Dekotora-devotees of the Japanese-based Utomara-Kai Association now take their trucks to events to help raise money for natural disaster relief. I can’t think of a better way to shed some light on people in need of help, especially because most these dekotora trucks are covered in hundreds of lights.
Who would have guessed?
Even though, you may never be able to imagine your truck looking anything like some of these dekotora trucks, you may have thought about redecorating the side of your truck with some new motor carrier decals.
If so, our friends at Drive Logistics can help you put some fab on the outside of that cab!