Lonnie McCurry, Jr shares his faith, family and the future of Skyjacker Suspensions

Skyjacker President Lonnie McCurry, Jr. shares his faith, family, and future with us on Episode 218. A strong family man, he brings West Monroe, Louisiana, to life for us. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

2:45 – this area of Louisiana is all about hunting, fishing, and family 

9:14 – my parents were great about not forcing me into the business – y’all go make an education, get a college degree, and decide your own career path             

24:27 – I learned two things doing the competitive side of rockcrawling: 1. It is a lot of work, and two, it’s hard to be competitive if you don’t have the seat time

34:54 – the way my dad worded it 40 years ago, if he built a lift kit, he wanted to feel like he could hand his daughter the keys and her go drive it, knowing she’d be safe 

42:20 – We started working with Willy long before Duck Dynasty

54:15 – we focused on the marking side for many years, but we feel like we need to focus more on the manufacturing side for the next few years.

58:04 – let’s talk about family

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

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Automotive related topics. Anything from owning an repair facility to racing. Anything...

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Chapters

• 9:13 [Ad] All Automotive with Matt Clawson
• 9:53 (Cont.) Lonnie McCurry, Jr shares his faith, family and the future of Skyjacker Suspensions

Transcript

[00:00:00.200] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors; men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.570] - 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Dread victoriously.

[00:01:13.030] - 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4LOW is the magazine for you. 4LOW cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4Lowmagazine.com to order your subscription today.

[00:01:39.330] - Big Rich Klein

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This week's guest has deep roots in off-road, from sweeping floors to President, one of the original rock crawlers in the early years of the sport, to keeping a brand at the top of the market for years in all phases of off-road. My guest is Skyjacker Suspensions President, Lonnie McCurry Jr. Lonnie, thanks for coming on board.

[00:02:01.490] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

[00:02:03.850] - Big Rich Klein

So let's jump right in. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:09.380] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

I was born and raised in West Monroe, Louisiana. We're in the northeast corner of Louisiana. I've lived here all my life, and actually my dad was born and raised here as well.

[00:02:20.660] - Big Rich Klein

So deep family roots in the area?

[00:02:23.430] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes.

[00:02:24.610] - Big Rich Klein

And I've been through there. I have to say that Louisiana needs spend more money on the highways, and the potholes and the transitions from bridges to the main part are pretty rough on the highway, but it looks like a really nice community. What was it like growing up there?

[00:02:45.120] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Well, I appreciate you saying that. This area is all about hunting, fishing, and family. There's not a lot of other things to do here. It's a lot of farming for industry here. That's the grassroots of how we got started is through hobbies of hunting, fishing, that thing. We've really enjoyed living here. I don't really foresee moving off at any point. I've had a couple of kids that moved away just to get out of the small town life. Now, as they have kids, they start yearning to move back.

[00:03:28.060] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, it's that migration thing. Everybody wants to get out and see the world, and then they have a tendency to come back.

[00:03:36.120] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

That's right. We love it here.

[00:03:39.870] - Big Rich Klein

And so growing up, what hunting and fishing? I mean, it's a lakes and rivers, bayou type stuff, am I correct?

[00:03:49.560] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yeah, you're spot on. My dad did not do a lot of fishing. We would go once or twice a year, and a lot a lot of times that was a lake in a local subdivision nearby. But he was an avid deer hunter, white tail deer. A little bit of squirrel hunting, maybe a turkey hunter, too. But white tail deer was his big thing. I have to say, a lot of it was to also feed the family. We weren't poor, but we didn't have a lot. To him, he always made a purpose out of what he was doing, too. If he went deer hunting, a lot of it, it wasn't just for sport, it was more to also feed the family.

[00:04:39.440] - Big Rich Klein

Just to let everybody know, senior, Lonnie senior is still alive, and he's the CEO of the company, correct? Skyjacker?

[00:04:48.840] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

That is correct. He'll be 79 next month, and this is the 50th anniversary of Skyjacker.

[00:04:58.790] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, and congratulations on that.

[00:05:01.590] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Thank you.

[00:05:02.270] - Big Rich Klein

Making it 50 years. That's quite something.

[00:05:06.820] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Let's- I definitely appreciate that.

[00:05:09.770] - Big Rich Klein

What did your dad do before getting started with the suspension company?

[00:05:17.680] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Okay. A little background was, he was raised with chicken houses on a few acres that his family-owned. So He didn't grow up playing sports or anything like that. He had his chores when he got home to clean out the chicken houses, feed the chickens, bush hog the lawn. He grew up in an era where it was all about the chores and getting everything done. That's a little bit of where he learned his Mr. Fix It personality, is that he was gifted in that area. He would always fix the tractor or he would fix things that was broke. While his dad was gone to work, my dad was sitting there fixing the tractor, and he enjoyed it. As he graduated high school, he became a fabricator. He learned to weld at a local welding shop. He'd go off and weld, whether it was oil tankers or whatever it might be. He went out on the jobs and did those. It just went hand in hand with the mechanical knowledge he had learned. He was a fast learner, so he was taught by some good people how to weld and fabricate things. That's basically what led him into the suspension side.

[00:06:50.530] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

It started, I guess, when Skyjacker first started in 1974, his focus was more of a four wheel drive repair service company, rebuilding transmissions, transfer cases, packing hubs, prepping your rigs for the... Around here, it's a lot of mud and water. So you always got to prep your rig, seal things up. He was doing that maintenance work. But since he was also a hunter as a hobby, the best hunting was getting further away from people, maybe into our local swamps. So you really needed a bigger tire. Where to get that bigger tire, you needed to lift the vehicle a little bit. So all those things went hand in hand and just led into a natural progression. Next thing you know, his driveway is all these buddy's trucks, wanting him to work on those and fix those. And that's really what just led him in to opening a shop.

[00:07:55.340] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. And that became the primary thing. And I know that you're in your 50s?

[00:08:04.410] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes. That's right. I was seven years old when he opened a shop for the first time. My life, I grew up at, of course, school. But after school, mom and dad both worked in the business. Mom would pick us up from school, and we went up to the shop until they closed. Mom would have us do a little homework in the corner of her office, and we got things done. I might be out in the shop piddling around as a kid. I'm sure I was probably in the way more than anything. But over time, as dad got a larger location, it had an area in the back where he put a three-wheeler back there, and I ride around and play a little bit. I just always grew up at the shop. That was just natural life to me to be around trucks and cars. That's all I know.

[00:09:10.520] - Big Rich Klein

You grew to love that, obviously, because you're still doing it.

[00:09:14.540] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes. I will say when I graduated high school, I set out in computer science in college. My dad really encouraged me to go the computer route. This was 1984. Before when I graduated high school. So computers were really starting to explode, and my dad felt like that's where the future may be. And they were always great about not forcing me into the business. I have a sister that's a year and a half younger than me, and they did the same with both of us. You all go make you an education, get a college degree, you decide your own career path. And also backing up, lift kits in the early '80s '70s, late '70s, everybody was thinking, Oh, that's just a fad. That'll never survive. That's just a temporary thing. People want to lift up their trucks, put big tires. And honestly, he wasn't sure that was going to be around 50 years later either. I started in computer science, and after a couple of years, I was still working for dad after college classes were over every day. I sat down and said, I actually really like this. I'm not a mechanic, but I enjoy the business, the evolution of it, the outdoors part of it.

[00:10:41.040] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

It's just all of it. I really like it. So as a family, we sat down and decided my mom, my dad worked hard to make money. My mom worked hard to keep the money. Pay the bills, make a profit, whatever they could do. And it was their decision that we really needed somebody in marketing. How to market this company and get it out there to people. And so I pursued and obtained a marketing degree. I switched my major and I got a marketing degree. My sister got the accounting degree. So that marketing side helped feed my passion for how to take what I liked as a little bit of a hobby and being around my dad as to how I could get that out in front of people and market it to people and promote it and show it. I was proud of what my dad had started, and I just wanted to help it grow.

[00:11:50.680] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And that it has done.

[00:11:53.520] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Well, the good Lord's blessed us. My parents raised me in church. I Our faith is something that's very important to us. We thank the good Lord for the growth he has given us and allowing us to have a successful company, still family-owned and operated. That's been an important thing to us.

[00:12:17.800] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And especially nowadays, where over the last 10 years, those investment firms have swallowed up so many companies.

[00:12:29.690] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes. Yes, there's not a week that goes by that I don't get an email, text. Now they're getting bold to live and stop by, knock on the front door and say, Hey, I got an idea. I want to run by you. Then you find out, Oh, they're just wanting to buy the company or invest in it. We have three generations working here today. We have five of the third generation that work here full-time, two of my children, three of my sisters. Working with family is very rewarding. It's got its challenges at times. Oh, yes. But you definitely feel that everyone's invested and they have a purpose. My parents always made me earn my way, just like this third generation. They have to prove their way and earn their way. But for example, my son, he's 24. He's 24. I mean, he's been going with me rock crawling into events since he was in a car seat. It's all he knows. He went and got a management degree, and he's here today helping us with operations and policies, procedures, and how we can improve on things from an administrative standpoint. So my niece is our marketing director.

[00:13:59.570] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

I have a daughter in the marketing department. It just... We have... One of my nieces is in our accounting department helping her mom. So it's good to have family in the different divisions of the company so that they can It also helps keep an eye on things, and we have checks and balances throughout the business.

[00:14:20.590] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And any business as it grows from a mom and pop garage-based business to something like what you have now, there is areas for growth, and you need all of those levels of management just to keep track of everything, because one person just can't do it all at that size.

[00:14:42.840] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Oh, no. No, you're right. I think my dad still struggles with that a little bit. Any decision he makes, any project we have, he wants to understand every bit of it. So he feels like he's making the right decision. And it's been hard for him to let go of certain things that he just either doesn't have the time to understand or he just can't. He's not into all the Internet analytics and things like that. That really is just not part of his culture growing up. He just, he doesn't really understand social media and TikTok and some of these things. But he's like, all right, that's where the third generation comes in. You all go and do these things, but they help educate us on how they purchase and how they shop for things. It's so different than the way my dad started the business, and the way I grew the business. All this evolved so much. So, having the third generation It helps us be relevant to today's market because they're younger, and they range anywhere from about 36 to 23, is a range of our third generation. So you've got a couple of decades in there that they cover, as well as my generation and my dad's generation.

[00:16:09.570] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

So it really does help us. We're able to take our experience and educate them. Another thing that we do is, actually, my son's desk, he shares an office with me. And a lot of that is so that he can be exposed to all parts of the business, other than sitting in an office by himself, just working on certain tasks. You know how it is when you run a business, you have everything from accounting, the marketing, to just You got a problem with an employee in the warehouse, whatever that it is. And I'm exposing him to all that by just being in the office with me. And that helps, too, in order to really learn it firsthand.

[00:16:59.690] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's very important. It's like I said, you start off... I'm sure that you start off with helping your dad by sweeping the floors and cleaning up and doing things like that. Having that grounded base in a company and knowing it from the ground up really makes a difference.

[00:17:21.930] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yeah, it does. It's funny when I think back, obviously, I did start sweeping floors. I I was taught how to pack hubs. As he began the manufacturing side of the business with the skyjacker brand, well, I also ran a drill press for hours and days. You just sitting there pulling on that drill press, drilling holes and plates that go to a bracket. So you learn those different things. Next thing you I'm bagging hardware and ziploc bags back in the day, but somebody had to do it. It had to be done. I learned the business from the ground up, and I did the same thing with my son and my daughters that work here They started in the warehouse, and then they moved up through the machine shop. They really learned the different areas of the business. My daughters, they may not have had to work back in the heat and doing the manual labor, but they ran the errands, they filed the papers, they did those medial tasks that somebody had to do. So then that makes them a better boss because they understand what's got to happen. It helps doing it that way. Right.

[00:18:50.270] - Big Rich Klein

So let's go back to your early years. And let's say, like school. Were you a pretty good student in up through high school, or were you one of those that kept looking out the window wanting to go do something else?

[00:19:08.050] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

It's odd. Not many people know this, but I was actually valedictorian.

[00:19:13.260] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice.

[00:19:14.520] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

But I also went to a small private school and I played all the sports. I played football, basketball, baseball. I was one of those people that as long as I paid attention in class and I took notes, then it came a little easy to me. I could just go in there the next day, take the test, did real well. I graduated college with honors, finished in four years. I had my first daughter while I was in college. It just... Education interested me. I think a lot of that comes from my mother when I was a kid. She really bragged on us and made it important that we did well in school. I thought that's what everybody tried to do is do well. I think it was just something she helped instill in My sister and I both, and we both are Valedictorians. So yes, I wasn't a nerd. I played all the sports and everything, but I did well in education. I think that's one thing pushed me to want to help the business grow is my dad ran the mechanical side of the business. I ran the marketing, inventory, purchasing, managing It is to sales teams.

[00:20:47.160] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

I focused on that side of the business. Now, what evolved over time was since I was the one going out to a lot of the shows, making sales sales calls, meeting customers. I probably had a better handle on what the market wanted, what they needed over time than what my dad did. Of course, originally he did everything because he founded it. He grew it, not taking anything away from that. But I graduated high school, I mean, college in 1988. So from about 1990 forward, I It was really driving, I can't say the product development, but what I had still ran the whole manufacturing side of the business. So get the bucks in here, get the lift kit done, get the accessories done, and then get the manufacturing lined out for production. And so I think all that worked together for me to do all that administrative side, and then him do the labor side of the business, because he understood all the manufacturing side, and I really didn't. I wasn't really mechanical. I've learned it over time just because I'm around it and have to. If we're analyzing buying a new piece of equipment, I got to understand, why do we need this or how are we doing it now?

[00:22:25.900] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

That thing.

[00:22:29.460] - Big Rich Klein

Let's Let's talk about those marketing. Well, I met you really early, and that was when you were rock crawling at Arca back in the days. And I was helping Ranch Judge and stuff like that back up until 2000, 2001. And then I moved to California and started Cal Rocks and then on to We Rock. But those early days of rock crawling, was that strictly marketing or was it something that you really enjoyed?

[00:23:02.580] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

It was something I really enjoyed. My dad had done the local mud racing circuit here for years as he was starting to grow the business early on, I guess, through the '70s and into the early '80s, and he stops. Of course, I was just a kid running around the racetrack, getting dirty and routine my dad home. I think that when we started going to places like Moab and Tennessee and doing some rock crawling. I'm going to say that was about 1998. Through doing that for a few years, I was like, Well, I really would like to go to the next level. I would like to do a competition. And my dad said, Well, the best way you're going to learn a lot of this business is from the driver's seat. And you do a competition, and you will see this industry differently. Of course, I'm just thinking, Oh, yeah, it's going to be great. I'll go out there and I'll compete. This is going to be fun. Well, I learned real quick, it's not necessarily fun. Racing is work. All the prep that goes into getting a vehicle race ready is a lot different than just saying, I'm going to go to Hot Spring for the weekend and do some trail riding.

[00:24:27.860] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

It was a lot different. Now, I loved it. It was great. But I'm going to say we learned, I personally learned two key things from doing the competitive side of rock crawling, which is only for a couple of years. I learned, number one, that it was a lot, a lot of work, and that it's hard to be competitive if you don't have the seat time. We're here in Louisiana. There's no rocks around us.

[00:25:06.510] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Unless it's dried mud. Yeah.

[00:25:09.350] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And of course, I hate mud. It's so dirty. You can never get it all off. It stinks. It just everything. To really be competitive, I had nowhere to practice unless I drive four hours from here to get to the nearest real place. I learned, Even if you think you're good, even if you have a great rig, it's hard to beat somebody who's doing it all the time. You can make an adjustment on a vehicle, and then you can go back out to an area and check and see if you're improving If it was an improvement or not. Well, for us, it's like, well, let's just show up a day or two early to practice and then compete. That's it. So one, I learned you need seat time. So the second thing, which I think was probably the most valuable thing I learned from it, was that you recognize that it's important to go beyond the driver's seat. In other words, it takes... Somebody has to develop a track. Somebody's got to organize an event. Somebody's got to promote it. You got to have all these things come together in order for there to be a race, especially a series and a successful one, just like you did.

[00:26:34.270] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

We learned that, okay, well, somebody's got to organize all that. There needs to be sponsors, promoters, contingency plans, all these things that, honestly, I didn't realize. I just thought people that raced and competed had a lot of money.

[00:26:53.380] - Big Rich Klein

They may have started with a lot of money.

[00:26:56.610] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yeah. So we realized there's a lot of value in sponsoring people, sponsoring, series and events. And I would say that's what led us as a company, Skyjacker, into sponsoring and title sponsoring Jeff Mello, the Sisson Brothers. And that led us into Short Course. Of course, we also sponsored the series with Ranch, the ARCA series. We sponsored a couple of women rock-crawl series back in those days just because there was a demand for it. And that led us right on into sponsoring people like Kirt Leduc and Scott Taylor, Carl Renesenter, and Core, and maybe sponsoring something at the Crandon Race track itself. Because we learned all those things, you create brand exposure. When you get banners on a track and there's a TV your camera filming it, your banner goes by. Things that didn't really understand how any of that works until we learned it from the inside out. I'm not so sure if I hadn't competed in the events, then I really wouldn't have seen the value those are to competitors and promoters. I would say that's the two key things I learned from participating.

[00:28:27.820] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And it gives you exposure. The tire companies learned that early on, and so did the OEM manufacturers, that win on Sunday, sell on Monday. And it's gotten That whole marketing idea is gone away, I would say, with more of the digital marketing that's happening nowadays than the old television and magazine type coverage or advertising that was done in the in the older days. It's a shame because some of us that are still in the print business are trying to keep all that afloat because there's still a big interest in it. And a lot of the marketing people nowadays don't realize that there's a lot of people out there that want that print type magazine, and all the magazines are disappearing. It's crazy.

[00:29:29.350] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

We've had the same discussion about our own print catalog. Over the last two or three years, we've had some major discussions internally that we don't need a print catalog anymore. We have all the year make model searches on the Internet, our website, all the aces and pies, and CIMA data co-op, all these things that provide all that data. We don't need a print catalog. But when I personally When you go to some of these industry shows, you have these shop owners come by that are 50 plus, and they're all like, oh, great. You still have a print catalog. Is this a new one? I need this. I got to have this. And I have to convey that back to this third generation that's here that, no, there's still a lot of demand for people that want this printed information. It's hard to maintain it accurately. Our catalog is huge because we don't hardly discontinue anything, and we still have so much depth in our product line. But it's worth it, because there's a large majority of people that still want that print data.

[00:30:45.640] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And still a large portion of America that has the expendable income is that 50 plus.

[00:30:56.960] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes.

[00:30:58.370] - Big Rich Klein

Yes, I agree. So they're still the catalog. Yes, you can search online, but online searches are not... It's much easier to open a magazine, go to the suspension section, and see it all right there instead of flipping pages and trying to put in all the data you need to do to do the searches online. And it's because it's not... There's so many clicks to get to what you need. At least that's how I feel.

[00:31:28.070] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

No, you're right. And a lot of sites all do it different. So you got to know how each one works and figure that out. And it's just something tangible about a paper product, and you can look over it and over it and over it, and at your leisure. And so we still produce, we do it every other year now, but we still produce a master catalog with all this application data in it. And it is twice the work because we got to do a digital a print version. But like you say, there's a lot of people that still want that. I do feel like it's making a little bit of a comeback. I know it's always exciting if I go in a store, I'm going to go through the magazine section. I'm going to go where there's print stuff, take a look. I know the younger generation, they're not. But a lot of the older generation sometimes are the ones that actually have the money, or at least maybe it's extra wisdom. And I would say this, maybe sometimes they care more about how they spend their money. They want to be sure it's the right quality, it's the right product, it's the right fit just for them And sometimes that's just hard to know on a digital platform only.

[00:32:49.900] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Right.

[00:32:50.840] - Big Rich Klein

I agree. So some of the other things that you guys have done that impressed me marketing-wise, your presence at CEMA for years was your display was like a fort to me. I always went... I mean, it was just... You brought that outdoors, indoors. And it was awesome. That, to me, was always a highlight of Cema.

[00:33:21.810] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Well, thank you. That was our effort. Our goal was to give it that outdoor feel. It was truly like a frame fort. We tried to have some fake trees, different things like that. We haven't had this really tall shag carpet that we were using that was brown to make it feel like dirt and outdoors grass or something. That's the feel we wanted because when it comes down to it, we are really outdoor people. We don't build our products, I guess you'd say, just for show and shine, just for looks. Like I said, we started here where it's mud and farmers, and it was really more out of a true function than just for looks. It was to help you either get to the deeper part of the woods to hunt or get out through the fields with your support vehicle. So it The industry, I feel like, has evolved a lot over time with big wheels and low profile tires and a lot of this show and shine look. Don't get me wrong, those are still customers for us, too. Absolutely. But it's a different customer. It's a different angle. And those guys, they don't really want to use their product.

[00:34:54.720] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

They want to look really good when they cruise on a Saturday night or whatever. And we do cater to that market as well. I would probably say our focus at Skyjacker is not for the custom guy, the custom builder fabricator. Ours is more a focus on a bolt on lift product for your truck, Jeep, SUV. But safety is one of our biggest concerns. Obviously, being a family business, we feel like our neck's on the line. And so we... Custom stuff is a little bit more risky. But then also, so is somebody who's built in a six-inch lift kit and 37-inch tires and driving 85 down the interstate. That's got to function and be safe. And so we do invest in doing safety testing, things like that, not only from a manufacturing, but just from a vehicle function standpoint. Our number one thing is to make something that bolts on, that's safe. I'll tell you the way my dad used to word it 40 years ago. It was like, if he built a lift kit, he wanted to feel like he could hand his daughter the keys and her go drive it, not knowing anything about lift kits or anything, just go and drive the vehicle and it operate and function and stop normally.

[00:36:32.200] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

He's always kept that in his mind of how he would look at one of his daughter or granddaughters just jumping in that Jeep and go drive it. Is it going to be safe for them? So that's our big focus.

[00:36:48.390] - Big Rich Klein

And that's that should be. Unfortunately, I know that there's some product manufacturers out there that that's not a priority. And that's a It's a shame. It's good to have companies like yours that put that forward.

[00:37:07.560] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

I appreciate that. Some people get around it by trying to say this is off-road use only. But we know today, most people, they're going to drive that vehicle daily, or at least they're going to drive it on the highway to get to the trailhead. So to have behind a statement of for off-road use only really doesn't fit anymore. So for us, we don't ever say that. We make sure whatever we sell and do is going to operate safely on the highway and function just as well off the highway. Right.

[00:37:46.860] - Big Rich Klein

So some of the marketing things that you guys have done that intrigued me is you've gotten into... You started, I mean, magazines, ultimate adventure, Moab runs, those things, and then where you're working with the user groups personally. And did you... I would imagine that was a strategy born out of... That's where the buyers are at.

[00:38:22.420] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes, it has been. And we feel like... Also, I'll say we We don't take on the attitude that we know it all. We want to learn from our customers and people that are in this industry that have a need. We want to learn from them. And if they have an idea of how to make something better or tweak a product, that's one reason why we do work with, let's say, like a Chris Durham today. You know Chris? Oh, yes.

[00:38:56.110] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely.

[00:38:56.660] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

He runs our products on various vehicles. And obviously we're willing to send it to him, anything that he wants. And we get detailed feedback from him of, Hey, I would make this little tweak right here, or whenever I got it, Max, Drew, of course, he custom does stuff. Well, maybe the coil on this coil over is getting a little bit loose. I think you need to run a longer coil, or just whatever it might be. We just recently reworked our old scalp leaf springs. We've sold these two and four-inch lift kits for scouts for 50 years, 45 years. Well, I just worked with a scout company, IH Parks America. I'm friends with Jeff through Ultimate Adventure and stuff, and we're sitting around, we're talking. He's like, I really wish somebody would re-update these scout springs because there's a couple of tweaks that I think need to be made. And so we picked each other's brains and said, What do you need? He said, Well, I wish the front half of the lease spring was a little longer to push the shackling more out forward, like it really needs to sit. And so we worked with him and we totally revised all of our old lease springs for a scalp, just because we got the feedback that there was room for improvement.

[00:40:20.450] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And so we're like, Hey, let's do that. We're actually revising right now our coil springs for the '70s model, F100, F150s. There's a lot of those dense side fours being restored and rebuilt. And when we had those coil springs made back, 45 years ago, The manufacturing technology wasn't where it is today. And so you just had to make them really stiff to not bow and to hold up. And honestly, we've been selling most of those same springs for all these years, and now we're going back and improving the ride design, doing a dual rate, progressive rate in the coils. So it's more comfortable. There's no need for it to be a 600 pound coil rate anymore. You can buy a higher quality material, manufacturing methods have improved. So that's part of why I go back to your comment there, that we do work with other clubs and and groups is to learn. It's not just to market our brand to sell more. We also feel like the more we can improve old and new product, the more people will want it because it's improved, it rides better. It works good. And that's important to us for the long term, for the survivability of this company.

[00:41:53.760] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Another 50 years, we have to involve with the industry, with the manufacturing methods, and obviously with vehicle technology.

[00:42:04.170] - Big Rich Klein

Then you guys got involved with television and Hollywood, I would say, is the way to put it. You did some vehicle work for different shows, and then the Duck dynasty guys came along.

[00:42:20.680] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes. We were blessed with that opportunity. The Robertson family here with Duck Commander. They're in our same town of West Monroe. We've known those people through the years. We started working with Willy before Duck dynasty, and it was Buck Commander. He had started a Buck Commander thing, and so we had done a couple of vehicles with him, and he was starting this thing with baseball legends and some country music people. And so we just helped him do a couple of things. And then here comes A&E with Duck dynasty. Willy comes to us again. He said, Hey, we all need our trucks modified. We need our trucks to look cool. We need to be able to drive them out here to where we're going to get in our duck boats and stuff. And can you guys help us out? And we're like, Sure. Not really. There was no guarantee that we were going to be on TV, and we didn't buy commercials to try to leverage that. Honestly, we just felt like we were good old boys working with good old boys. We did hook them up with a couple of some tire people and some light people to get product to make it look good.

[00:43:50.750] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

We did all the work here, built up their trucks. Willy was like, Hey, stick a decal on my truck. We Start showing up on TV. It was a great relationship. Now, we did, after a couple of seasons, took it a step further, and we would hire Willy to come to SEMA, make an appearance, and sign autographs, thing.

[00:44:15.670] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. We leveraged that.

[00:44:17.990] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

It was great to draw attendance. Honestly, we just enjoyed working with that family. I have a daughter-in-law now that works for Willy's daughter. They're still tied into this community. We still do stuff with them now. It's not what it was during their heyday of the show. But again, it was just We're just a bunch of good local people supporting each other.

[00:44:50.340] - Big Rich Klein

So working with Kurt Leduc, he's a desert racer for all the rock Crawlers that are listening and have not heard the name Kurt Leduc. You're missing out on a great personality with Kurt. How did that all come about?

[00:45:13.160] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

That was honestly through my dad. We were looking to maybe... My dad, he loved that high speed racing side of the industry. It's not anything I really knew a lot about. I think it was a personal interest from him. But we saw value, like I said, in starting to sponsor events and people. And so, dad reached out to Kurt just because he saw Kurt on one of the race trucks and one of the series he was watching, and he said, I'm going to call this guy. And so he called Kurt Leduc, and they really struck up a good rapport. And Kurt came out here, sat down with my dad face to face, and obviously, he pitched his program, but And beyond that, it was a very good relationship because my dad was one. He was more interested in, well, what do you need? It wasn't just money. What do you need that money for? Well, I need this Borg-Warner transfer case or whatever it was. I have one, but it's rebuilt. I need this backup. So my dad, then he would come back to us. We need to give Kurt some more money. And we're like, well, we are already sponsoring him.

[00:46:48.700] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

He does what's a sponsor money, whatever he needs it. Well, no, I mean, that's going to buy all his race fuel and his transportation this day. He really needs this other part. He needs this, whatever. And so we need to give him some more money just because he was interested from the inside what Kurt needed. And any time we went to a race, my dad went down in Kurt's pits to help him in the pit. I may take care of my mom up in the stands, and we got a camera guy helping him film, but my dad's like, I don't care about any of that. I want to be in the pit. I want to help Kurt see what he needs. And so that led into, Hey, we're going to Easter Jeeps Safari. Kurt, you want to come? We got a bedroom in the condo. You come stay with us. Here, bring your Bronco or We'd bring an extra vehicle, let him drive one of ours. And he may say, Oh, yeah, this was great. The first thing he did was break a rear drive shaft because he had it in two-wheel drive. But a lot of his desert stuff he does in two-wheel drive.

[00:47:59.330] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And So he had a little bit of a learning curve in the rocks, a little different from the desert racing where he's carrying speed and momentum. And so we learned a little bit from each other. We learned a lot more from him than he learned from us. And that relationship evolved a lot over time. My folks would actually go to California at times on vacation and go connect with Kurt and do something. And then I went with Kurt. He wanted to start some Baja tours, probably about eight years ago. We put together a little website for him, and we went on one of the trips with him down in Baja, brought my wife, and just made a great four day trip out of it because he wanted to start doing his tours and things. And it's been a relationship more than just sponsoring And like you said, Kurt is a very great down to earth person. He's also got a lot of great marketing ideas. A lot of times we're sitting around talking. He's like, Hey, I think you should do this. I think you should do that. We built an early Bronco several years ago, and Kurt came out for like a month, and he just stayed at my dad's, and he came to work every day, and we worked on and his Bronco together.

[00:49:31.240] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

He built the roll cage and it had an aftermarket motor, so he built the whole front cradle for that, where you tie in the coilovers. And he just wanted to help with all of it. We widened the frame and lowered a fuel cell down in the frame a little bit. And just he's come out here two or three different times for projects like that outside of racing and everything. It's just been a very, very good relationship over time. It's hard for a racer like that to have the time to get away, but he does when he can. And anytime we go out with us, we try to connect with him. And of course, that led us straight into sponsoring Kyle. We were sponsoring Kyle on his first Pro-Light win. We were his doors and hood sponsor, and we've sponsored his son Todd a lot through the Monster Truck part that he does. They're a great family unit all together.

[00:50:41.080] - Big Rich Klein

I agree 100 %. When I was running Valley Off-Road Racing Association, Vora, we got Kurt to come up and run the Prairie City track just to check it out before he came up to race and brought the boys up. And we went around track, me and a guy named Steve Sullivan, who was helping me. He was one of our racers, Class I racers. And he was the heavy equipment operator out there as well, grading and putting the track together. And we took... Kurt shows up in his stock Grand Cherokee that he'd driven up from San Jose to Sacramento, that he was at a four-wheel parts truck fest or something. And he drove up to see the track, and he goes, Well, let's go drive the track. And so we thought we'd be just putting around the track. Steve climbs in the back. I climb in the front seat with Kurt, and he just guns it. And he's throwing it into the corners and jumping the jumps in this totally bone-stocked Grand Cherokee. And I never felt nervous. It was just, he knew what he was doing. I knew that he knew what he was doing, but it It was quite the ride, you might say, an E-ticket ride.

[00:52:03.340] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yeah, he does. He knows how to drive. There's no doubt. Good quality man.

[00:52:13.000] - Big Rich Klein

Well, you got to come out to the Ormhoff, the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame gala. It's the Sunday before CEMA starts, and we can all hang out together.

[00:52:25.050] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Yes, that would be great. I would enjoy that.

[00:52:29.250] - Big Rich Klein

So let's Let's talk about where the business is at, and where you're at in the business, and where the future of the business is going.

[00:52:40.960] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Okay. We recently, in the last couple of years, added on a new building, which was about 24,000 square feet, with the intent of being our RDA manufacturing building. So what one of the driving forces, of course, for a lot of companies since COVID, was to bring more manufacturing in-house. And we were blessed with good timing. We had put in a new fiber laser right the year before COVID in 2019. So we were good there. But there's still been a lot of manufacturing that we've still doing. I would call it a blacksmith form, ironworkers. And we're needing to improve more on our manufacturing to solidify the future. Also, some of that has to do with limited workforce today, and it's getting harder and harder to find people that want to work or care about learning a trade, so you have to automate some of that now. So that's been a big thing for us. My dad operated out of a two bay R&D for 30 years, and we just built a seven bay R&D. It's got five lifts, two just concrete floor, depends on what you're doing. We've been adding staff back there because like you said, one person just can't do it all.

[00:54:15.090] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And So we have more people in R&D now. And of course, we've got a brand new mechanical engineer just graduated college Saturday. He's been with us for a while, and trying to expand on our our design and fabrication side of the business. We focus for many, many years on the marketing side, which is still very important, but we feel like that we needed to focus more on the manufacturing for the next few years. And so part of this building expansion was to provide the room, one, to organize all the equipment that we do have now. It's in about three different buildings. And so we've got parts on buggies and fortlets going from A, B, C areas, just back and forth to get something made. And we needed to get all that into one area so it's more streamlined, but we didn't have anywhere to do it. So now we do, and we're working on that, and then we're adding new equipment on a regular basis to make... I don't care if it's cutting and coping tubing, is one thing. We have a new piece of equipment that'll do all that now, and we've just been doing it with saws and chop saws, and a little bit labor intensive.

[00:55:41.080] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And so we're trying to automate and improve a lot of that, and we just unloaded a new robotic welder, and that'll provide for us future growth. We're not looking to eliminate our manual welders that we have, but the automation will allow us to grow without maybe adding more people. Like I said, it's hard to find the skilled workforce now, and so we can automate it. We have basically 50 employees here. It averages anywhere from that 45 to 55, depending upon the workforce available. And so I just average it. I'll say we have 50 people. Our goal would be to continue to grow without necessarily adding many more people. We feel like we have enough. So that's been our focus. Now, as we grow, we also want to offer more, I guess the things we're working on is more builder parts more components, more component items. We've been focused for many, many years on the complete lift kits, whether it's a Superduty, an F150, a Jeep. We're focused on the bolt on lift kit part for best I said before, it's the driving force behind us is the first off of the bolt on item. We do realize there's a lot of custom people out there.

[00:57:10.100] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

There's a lot of fabricators, people that just want to put their hands on it and make it different. So we are looking at a lot of individual items, whether it's just with coil overs in different lengths and different coils, or whether it's just custom parts that they can weld on vehicle as they see fit. It doesn't have to bolt into the factory location, various lengths of control arms and things. Until now, everything's got a purpose. It's got to fit this vehicle or else we don't offer that component. And so we are focused on, which the added equipment will help those things be easier to offer. That's That goes hand in hand with our expansion. Right.

[00:58:04.660] - Big Rich Klein

Well, great. Let's talk about the family a little bit. I know that, like you said, you got married while you were in college, and you have a couple of kids, and your two kids, and your sister has three, and most of them are involved in the business. I wanted my condolences. I know it was a tough year earlier this year, and you lost a grandson, Everett, and our condolences and prayers to your family.

[00:58:40.810] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Thank you, Rich. I really appreciate that. Back up a little bit, I will say my wife and I have always loved children, and we actually have five children, two work in the business, three do not. I've had as many as four of them here at one time, whether going through high school just needed a job or a part-time job or whatever. But two have decided to stick and make it a career. Two live in Phoenix. They just wanted to get out of the small town of Monroe. One of them in Phoenix is married now with two kids, and that's the one who's yearning to move back home or closer to home. I have eight grandchildren, including the one that passed. That has been the last two years. He's had a lot of health issues. It's been a very tough struggle. We never thought we would lose him. So one of the things I'm compassionate and have empathy for people that have lost children. I've had daughters that have had miscarriages and things, but I've never lost a child or a grandchild. And you just never think that you're going to outlive a child or a grandchild until it happens.

[01:00:07.420] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And that's been a very tough experience. You're trying to use your faith, but you can to remain positive, to send a healing or a doctor. When things pan out that way, it's hard to trust that God has a plan and a reason. But then he'll show himself to us in other ways, and you do realize that he does have a plan. It's hard. But I appreciate you mentioning Everett because we're all finding ways to devote his memory for the future. It was hard for us as a... We're all about family. I mean, that's just everything we do is really about family on the weekend. My family is over at my house all three days, Memorial Day weekend, just swimming or just hanging out. That's what we do. We just cook and eat together. That's where we are as family. I do feel like some of the grandchildren will be here someday. I've done the same thing with my kids. My dad did with me and my sister was, and my mom did, that you don't have to work here. You go find what you want to do. If you want to be a pastor, if you want to be an engineer, whatever you want to do, you go do that.

[01:01:48.880] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

And some did, and some did and stayed here. I'm thankful for their choice to be here. And so the ones that are here is because this where they want to be. My niece, that's our marketing director. She owned her own clothing boutique. She did other things first and then found her way here as well. So for us, we really like that, but we don't acquire that of our family. I know there are some people that have family businesses, and they really don't want their children working in the business because it does add a lot of tension. If you have a rough day at work, and then the next day, you're all supposed to go hang out to pool together, it can be tough sometimes to not bring work home with you. Because business is business. You're going to disagree. There's going to be problems. There's going to be friction. And I'll be honest with you, we don't all agree. I don't care if we're doing a vehicle build of a new Superduty. My dad might want Chrome, and we want black wheels and black folk. We don't want it Chrome. I was like, who's going to want Chrome?

[01:03:08.510] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Nobody goes overlanding with Chrome. I'll tell you, we get into some tough conversations, and then sometimes you have to choose your battles. Say, Okay, well, he got Chrome on this one, but we get the next one, or whatever that it might be. But it's tough. So I see both sides sometimes while people don't do it. For example, my wife does not work in the business. Number one, we have five kids. It didn't make sense for her to have a different job anyway. She was a homemaker. But number two, she did help here before where we may we had somebody on maternity leave. And it's like, you get a little bit of a friction at work, you go home. I want things to be fresh and different at home. So we don't have I would say any married couples that work here in the family. It's not like we employ my daughter and her husband. My daughter works here, but not her husband. Not going to say that never happened in the past, but We don't find it. It's a great idea to have married spouses working together here. Like I said, it is business, so it's tough.

[01:04:28.390] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Everybody wants to go home and feel a release from work and feel fresh, and we just feel like that's a healthier way to do it.

[01:04:35.550] - Big Rich Klein

That makes sense. It really does. Well, Lonnie, it's been a great conversation with you, and I really appreciate the time that you've spent. We've had a friendship over the years, and I appreciate that, and I hope that all continues.

[01:04:57.420] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Me too, Rich. I really respect what you do for this industry in numerous ways, and I appreciate you having me on your podcast today, and maybe we can do it again sometime.

[01:05:11.780] - Big Rich Klein

Sounds like a great deal. All right, Lonnie, thank you so much, and you have a great day, and I'll let you get back to work now.

[01:05:18.840] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Thank you, Rich. Have a good day.

[01:05:20.410] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, you too. Bye-bye.

[01:05:22.020] - Lonnie McCurry Jr.

Bye-bye.

[01:05:23.000] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.