ABOUT OUR SHOP

 Curtis Smith comes from a long line of mechanics—people who fixed what others scrapped and believed a machine should earn its keep. From an early age, Curtis was in the shop, learning how things worked, why they failed, and how to build them better the next time. Turning wrenches wasn’t a phase or a business idea—it was part of who he was.

At 21, Curtis earned his CDL and went to work on commercial vehicles, gaining hands-on experience with the trucks that keep construction sites moving, aggregate flowing, waste routes running, and municipalities operating. He worked in and around the construction and aggregate industries, learning how equipment is abused, overloaded, rushed, and relied on every single day. That experience shaped how he thinks about durability, uptime, and real-world specs.

At 24, Curtis was approached by a friend to help start a roll-off waste business. What began as helping out quickly turned into full immersion. Curtis learned every side of the operation—sales, routing, maintenance, fabrication, and compliance. When off-the-shelf equipment couldn’t handle Michigan conditions or the demands of the job, they built their own hooklift trucks. Curtis learned every nut, bolt, weld, hydraulic line, and failure point firsthand.

Alongside Curtis during this time was his wife, Marla Smith. Marla worked shoulder to shoulder with Curtis in the waste industry, gaining firsthand experience in the operational, administrative, and customer-facing sides of the business. She understands the pressures waste and construction companies face because she lived them—tight schedules, regulatory demands, equipment downtime, and customer expectations. That shared experience built a deep understanding of the industry and, just as importantly, how to work together under real-world pressure.

That experience changed everything.

Curtis saw how poor specs, rushed installs, and cost-cutting shortcuts created downtime, safety risks, and lost money. He also saw what happened when a truck was built correctly—when it was engineered for the job instead of assembled to hit a price. That realization became the foundation for Smith Truck Body.

This isn’t just a business model. Curtis is genuinely passionate about trucks and anything with an engine. Whether it’s a hooklift, a custom semi, heavy construction equipment, or even his Jeep, Curtis approaches everything mechanical the same way—how it’s built, how it performs, and how it holds up when it’s actually used. That passion shows up in every build that leaves the shop.

Today, Curtis and Marla operate Smith Truck Body together as a husband-and-wife team, combining deep mechanical knowledge with real operational experience from the waste, construction, and aggregate industries. Their shared background allows them to understand customers not just as buyers—but as operators who need equipment they can depend on.

Smith Truck Body builds hooklift trucks, roll-off trucks, and custom commercial trucks designed for real work. Every truck reflects lessons learned in the field—not from a catalog or a spreadsheet, but from years of lived experience.

No shortcuts. No nonsense. Just trucks built to work.