After you picked the perfect pickup for your job, were you ever overwhelmed at the possibilities of the kinds of service body upfits you could get? On the flipside of that, have you ever found yourself unable to find that perfect fit anywhere? Maybe you just aren’t looking in the right places. Bryan Mernaugh from Dakota Bodies shares why Dakota Bodies would be a great place to begin your truck body search, especially if your tastes or needs are specific. After all, custom is Dakota Bodies’ standard.
MWS: WHAT IS DAKOTA BODIES AND YOUR ROLL WITH THE COMPANY?
MERNAUGH: Founded in 1997, Dakota Bodies has grown to be one of the nation’s leading truck body manufacturers. Dakota Bodies is based in Watertown, South Dakota, and is one of the area’s top employers. I am the Midwest territory sales manager.
MWS: WHAT SETS DAKOTA BODIES APART FROM OTHER TRUCK BODY MANUFACTURERS?
MERNAUGH: Dakota Bodies has a diverse product lineup. We manufacturer service bodies, utility bodies, flatbeds, canopied bodies, contractor bodies, chipper bodies, and custom bodies. What really sets us apart from others is our ability to customize bodies to fit specific customer needs. If a customer has a wild idea, we are more than willing to entertain it and do what we can to make that idea a reality.
MWS: DAKOTA BODIES TOUTS ITS CUSTOM SOLUTIONS FOR VIRTUALLY ANY APPLICATION. EXACTLY HOW CUSTOMIZED CAN A DAKOTA BODIES TRUCK BODY BE?
MERNAUGH: Our engineering and production teams have strong capabilities for designing and manufacturing custom solutions to help provide the most useful body for the end customer. We understand that the truck body is the end customer’s “toolbox.” The more thought out and fully designed a body is, the more useful it is to help the customer be as productive as possible. One of our company slogans is “Custom is Our Standard,” and we truly stand by that.
We have built a lot of interesting bodies over the years. The wildest one in my opinion is a design we build for a power company that incorporates a toilet and septic tank in one of the vertical compartments. Now that is pretty custom!
MWS: TRUCK BODIES ARE THE BREAD AND BUTTER OF DAKOTA BODIES. BUT HAS THE COMPANY BRANCHED OUT IN THE MANUFACTURING OF OTHER PRODUCTS AS WELL?
MERNAUGH: Our focus is 100% on truck bodies and options/accessories for our truck bodies. We build a lot of products internally that many truck body manufacturers purchase externally. One good example is our drawer sets, which are very high quality and more affordable than many of the drawer set brands out there.
MWS: WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON FOR DAKOTA BODIES?
MERNAUGH: We have had tremendous growth the last several years in regard to not only sales, but facilities and our growing workforce. We are just finishing up an expansion in our Watertown, South Dakota, facility and recently opened another manufacturing facility in Liberty, Missouri. The facility in Missouri gives us more manufacturing capacity and better distribution for our Southern customers.
We have several new products that we are excited about. One of them is our new Dakota Utility Canopy body that functions as an enclosed, mobile workshop. We also have a great, new contractor’s flatbed body coming out. By the time of this publication, the first one will have already rolled off the production floor. I believe both of those products will do very well in the industry.
MWS: ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS?
MERNAUGH: Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or ideas you might have. We love helping and talking with the work truck community and are so thankful to be a part of it!
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Bryan Mernaugh is the Midwest territory sales manager at Dakota Bodies. Reach him at bryanm@dakotabodies.com. Dakota Bodies manufactures work truck bodies for a variety of industries. Find out more, visit www.dakotabodies.com.
