The black T-top with the swooshing red light in its nose and a sometimes-snarky AI wasn’t the only vehicle featured on the 1980s television series “Knight Rider.”
A black tractor-trailer with a long-nose cab, marked with gold trim and a knight chess piece, was prominently featured as the mobile unit for the show’s Foundation for Law and Government, a traveling base of operations for David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight and the high-tech Knight Industries Two Thousand, aka KITT.
Observant drivers might spot the semi crossing Pennsylvania later this year on its way from Butler County to near Philadelphia for its first appearance since the truck’s pieces were found, repaired and brought back to their Knight Rider appearance.
The restored screen-used tractor-trailer will make its first public appearance at Retro Con 2026, a pop culture convention being held Sept. 12-13 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa.
It will mark the successful conclusion of years of effort by Joe Huth of Clay Township, and his partner, AJ Palmgren, who are also known as the Knight Rider Historians. In addition to the truck, they own two of the five surviving cars used as KITT.
“I’m excited to let people see the finished thing, especially those who have been following me for years. They’re going to be so excited, and I’m going to be excited for them to be able to see it,” Huth said. “I didn’t realize the amount of work and how long it would take. It’s such a sense of accomplishment to see this thing through.”
The tractor, a 1984 GMC General, was the second used for the mobile unit in the show’s third and fourth seasons. It was found on an Idaho farm in 2016 — painted blue and its custom faux sleeper gone — and they bought it in 2019.
“A family of mice had lived in it. They destroyed the interior,” Huth said. “It hadn’t run in 15 years. It needed a complete overhaul.”
The first tractor, a 1980 GMC General, remains missing. Huth runs a search for its vehicle identification number every six months.
“There’s always hope to find stuff,” he said. “It very well could be out there.”
Only one trailer, a 1978 Dorsey, was used over Knight Rider’s four seasons. It was found near Phoenix in 2022, where it had been used for storage for 11 years, painted white and modified for hauling drag racing cars and boats.
“It was not as bad as the tractor. The dry climate in Arizona kept it in pretty good shape for how old it was,” Huth said. “It took a year to tear it all back down to its base.”
As part of the restoration, Huth has set up the interior of the trailer to how it was seen on the show, which had actually been a studio set.
He hopes to have everything done by August.
Painting is among the last of the work. Dorsey Trailer donated all of the paint supplies to paint the entire vehicle. Chris Hoke, owner of SpeedPro Fort Worth West in Fort Worth, Texas, is donating the vinyl decals.
Joseph Scott, vice president of Dorsey Trailer, said they became aware of the restoration effort and agreed to help in any way they could with the trailer, even though the company no longer produces that model.
“Recently, our outside marketing team touched base with Joe to see if we could provide anything else. He stated they were near the end of the restoration and could use some paint. Dorsey is gladly providing this,” Scott said. “Very few people would do what Joe and the team have done with this trailer. This project has been ongoing for several years and they never let a roadblock slow them down. We are extremely proud of the work they have done and are glad to play a small role in helping them.”
Hoke, 52, has been a Knight Rider fan since childhood and a frequent viewer of the Knight Rider Historian’s YouTube channel.
“I was watching one of his videos and he asked for anyone that does that kind of thing. I own a print shop here in Fort Worth, Texas, and so I reached out to him and said that we do that sort of thing and I’d love to be part of the restoration,” Hoke said. “I’m inspired that someone has the passion to keep our history for us Gen X’ers. It’s rare that somebody will preserve that history we will remember.”
Donations have been vital for the project. Huth estimates the cost has been well over $100,000. More than 500 people have donated about $80,000.
“There’s no way we would have finished the trailer this soon without all those donations,” he said.
Going to Retro Con with the semi will be one of their two KITT cars, a 1984 Pontiac Firebird that was used for stunts in the third and fourth seasons and then displayed at Universal Studios in Los Angeles from 1988 to 1993. It was last at Retro Con in 2022, and was the car featured on Jay Leno’s Garage in 2018 and reunited with Hasselhoff on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in 2019.
Huth and Palmgren plan to keep the tractor-trailer with a third partner in Chicago, where it can be kept indoors and be in a more central location for traveling to Midwest shows.
There were not yet any plans for showing the truck in Pittsburgh.
“I’m sure it will get displayed in the Pittsburgh area at some point,” Huth said.