June 27, 2001 Diversity on the Move

Volume 4 | Issue 4

High Tech Performance Trailers are used for displaying products, for transporting NASCAR teams and equipment, as virtual training centers an

This company’s name says it all. High Tech Performance Trailers are technologically advanced quality tractor-trailers custom-designed to perform whatever functions customers’ requirements specify. When crème-de-la-crème organizations need to go mobile, they turn to the Painesville, Ohio-based company. High Tech has a high profile in the national and international professional auto and motorcycle racing industry. Its presence is equally strong in other applications, such as mobile NASA flight simulators and operating rooms on wheels.”We manufacture custom tractor-trailer semis for a variety of applications,” says Bruce Hanusosky, president and chief executive officer. Although High Tech’s largest market is NASCAR, it also designs and manufactures trailers with highly sophisticated data and telecommunications infrastructures. The range of High Tech’s achievements bears testimony to the company’s commitment to quality – from custom-built bodies to sophisticated hospitality amenities to technologically advanced architecture, High Tech delivers exactly what its customers require.

Highway to Market

“We take on projects other trailer manufacturing companies won’t touch,” says Hanusosky. Not only does High Tech tackle the challenging project, but it also delivers in record-breaking time, as it did recently for Nortel Networks of Ottawa. “Five months after we first talked with Nortel about the project, they had their trailer out on the road. It is the first mobile trailer of its kind, equipped with a full telecommunications network system and expandable. It can do whatever their main facility in Ottawa can do. It’s a mobile marketing tool for Nortel and allows them to show companies how Nortel infrastructures work.”

When NASA needed a mobile space lab, the agency turned to High Tech Trailers. “We designed and manufactured this mobile trailer for the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland,” explains Hanusosky. “It’s used to teach college students how space travel works, and it’s equipped with a flight simulator that you can actually fly.” The mobile trailer also includes all of the weather and communications systems found in a space shuttle, and it even has a wind tunnel. “This is used to demonstrate to students how air foils work – the wings on a space shuttle, for example,” continues Hanusosky. This trailer has been a mobile teaching facility for about four years now.

Still another High Tech trailer – built for Zimmer Medical, an affiliate of Bristol Myers – is a fully equipped medical training facility complete with an operating room. “It travels to hospitals throughout the country to train surgeons how to replace bones and joints,” says Hanusosky. Zimmer is a manufacturer of artificial bones, joints and all of the tools and fasteners necessary for joint and bone replacements.

“We also design and manufacture display trailers for companies that make products like cars, shoes and toilets,” says Hanusosky. “The interiors of these trailers are walk-through displays where potential customers can actually pick up products and touch them and watch them work. TV commercials cost a fortune. Our tractor-trailers are great marketing devices because we get products right out in front of the public.”

Finish-line Efficiency

High Tech’s primary business is focused on the design and manufacture of tractor-trailers for the NASCAR, Indy Car and all other professional auto and motorcycle racing organizations. “We start with a 50-foot or 53-foot semitrailer body shell manufactured for us by Kentucky Manufacturing of Louisville,” says Hanusosky. These transporters carry two racecars and all of the equipment, tools and parts necessary to keep the racecars operating during a weekend of races. “They are fully equipped workshops. The front 12-foot section of the trailer is usually designed as an office or lounge area for team managers, owners or racecar drivers,” Hanusosky says.

The company also designs and manufactures hospitality trailers for racing-team sponsors. These trailers have expandable sides that open up to almost twice the size of a standard semitrailer – up to 53 feet by 16 feet. “Most of these trailers come equipped with commercial kitchens we design, where chefs prepare food for these events,” says Hanusosky.

Manufacturers that provide engines for Indy racecars use High Tech telemetry trailers as mobile research labs. “Companies like Toyota, Honda and Ford-Cosworth have engineers and technicians working out of these trailers as they gather information about their engines right at the site of the races,” Hanusosky says. “They are highly equipped with everything imaginable – everything from phone and fax lines to satellite hookups.” They are also equipped with private meeting areas and galleys.

High Tech also designs and builds trailers for Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda to carry their professional motorcycle riders. These are also fully equipped with workshops, full bathrooms, kitchens and a private resting area for riders to rest between races.

Made with Pride

In an era of mass-produced products, High Tech Trailers stands tall above so many other manufacturers in its commitment to craftsmanship. “All of our 65 employees are true craftsmen, and we are known in the industry for our dedication to craftsmanship,” says Hanusosky. “When each trailer leaves our doors, all of my guys here watch it pull out and they are very proud of what they just built. We’ve always been known as the premier builder in the U.S.”

Hanusosky developed the company philosophy when he started it in 1981, after having been in the auto restoration business for about 12 years. “High Tech will always be innovative and will always be the source for the best and most advanced products offering the highest quality available in the industry,” he says. “Our customers rely on us to be there on time and we deliver on time. In this industry, that’s very important because of what’s at stake in terms of sponsorship from major companies.”

In anticipation of its expansion into the corporate and display trailer market, High Tech recently enlarged its facilities to 85,000 square feet. “This expansion will double our manufacturing capabilities,” Hanusosky says. “We expect to be the No. 1 transporter manufacturer in all of motor sports, and we will be able to do that because we are able to produce more units per year.”

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