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LES SMITH is convinced he can build a better trailer, and he makes no secret about how he's going to do it. Indeed, spend a morning with him at the Extreme Trailers LLC facility and you'll quickly learn the mantra: tare weight, tare weight, tare weight.
Simply, lighter is better, and the industry veteran is betting his late-career startup that improved designs and processes will turn a formerly shuttered trailer manufacturing facility into a hub of innovation that rolls out industry-leading, premium lightweight products.
Smith, Extreme Trailers' President and CEO, has been in the industry for more than 30 years, with experience in the full range of markets: dump trailers, refuse, drop decks, flatbeds, multi-axle flatbeds, and liquid and dry bulk tanks. Don Hayes, vice president of operations, has another 35 years in transportation, including experience at Hendrickson and Freightliner.
"With the number of years we've both had in the industry, at very high positions, we were looking for a situation where you can work on your own ideas and your own dreams," Smith told Trailer-Body Builders during a plant tour in May.
And that dream found a home in an industrial zone in Dover, Ohio, about 80 miles south of Cleveland on I-77, and about midway between Columbus and Pittsburgh. The 100,000 sq. ft. facility, a former Tremcar plant, is part of a 10-year agreement with the local Economic Development and Finance Alliance, and includes room for expansion.
"I was vice president of operations, and during the oil-and-gas bust Tremcar chose to vacate. I worked with EDFA and Tremcar to acquire the facility and some machinery and equipment - a plasma table, shear, overhead cranes - so we could open it back up," Smith said. "The workforce was already here in place that had Tremcar experience building trailers, and also had a tremendous amount of experience in aluminum welding. It's a very attractive situation when the plant's already set up to run transportation equipment and product, along with a trained workforce."
After taking possession of the facility in mid-2016, the new company spent about six months setting up "the infrastructure" - the design technology and tools as well as the production systems. To reduce startup costs, the Extreme team laid out the production line....