Eric Anthony of Aberdeen, Idaho doesn’t merely march to a different drummer — he marches to a different band. The self-described president, bookkeeper, service manager and labor force of Horse Canyon Services Inc. uses a railroad crane on his service truck, never bills customers, and sells “confidence.”
“A lot of my customers are farmers, and it can get pretty tense during harvest,” says the 55-year-old Anthony. “One of my long-time customers said that once he calls me for repairs, he can relax, because he says I project a level of confidence that I’ll get him running, no matter what it takes.”
Anthony’s confidence comes from 37 years of working in truck and heavy equipment repair shops. He began his career as a mechanic at an International Harvester truck repair shop in Tacoma, Wash., served a three-year apprenticeship to become a journeyman mechanic, progressed through a series of heavy-equipment repair shops, and eventually moved to southeast Idaho in 2002 and gave himself a raise by starting his own business.
“When we moved to Idaho I was going to have to take a serious pay cut if I worked in a shop around here,” he says. “So I started Horse Canyon Services. I work on trucks, heavy equipment and farm equipment. I started out charging $48 an hour, and now that I’ve got my reputation established I charge $80 an hour and I’m busier than I want to be.”
Anthony began his business on a shoestring. He purchased a battered four-wheel-drive 1975 Ford F600 with a crane and service body for $3,500 and began proving himself to local trucking companies and farmers. As his business prospered he upgraded to his current 2001 Sterling Acterra outfitted with a 5.9 liter Cummins Series B, 24-valve, 205-horsepower engine coupled to an Allison MD3060 automatic transmission teamed with a Marmon-Herrington all-wheel-drive kit.
“All-wheel-drive isn’t an option around here,” he says. “You’ll be driving down a rural road and come to a spot where they’ve irrigated across the road and you’ve got to get through a 60-foot-wide stretch of mud that’s two feet deep.”
He outfitted the truck with a used 13-foot Knapheide service body, then installed the unique crane that came on his original Ford service truck.
“It’s a Waterloo telescoping crane,” says Anthony. “The guy told me it was originally on a railroad gondola car. I like it because I don’t have to raise it nearly vertical to lift something heavy close or into my truck, like you do with a regular crane.”
The 10,000-pound capacity Waterloo crane shares the center bay of Anthony’s service body with a Husky air compressor that he “beheaded.” He removed the air compressor assembly from the top of the 80-gallon storage tank and mounted it on the crane’s hydraulic reservoir to reduce the overall height of the truck. A Miller Trailblazer 10,000-watt generator/welder capable of MIG, TIG and arc welding also provides electric power on remote job sites.
Anthony’s array of tools is, “nothing fancy,” he says. “Every so often I let myself buy special tools, like a Parker air-over-hydraulic portable hose crimper, or a Tiger Tool for disassembling truck U-joints. I should have bought that Tiger Tool 30 years ago, and saved myself a lot of pounding.”
A Galaxy smartphone is a critical part of Anthony’s tool arsenal.
“If I’m working in tight quarters, trying to read wires or see things where I can’t get my head to get a good look, I’ll snap a picture with the smart phone, then blow it up so I can see the small details. Plus, I use the Internet all the time to access wiring or hydraulic schematics. It’s amazing what you can find on the Internet even though you’re miles and miles out in the country.”
Many self-employed mechanics spend a lot of time wrestling with billing and office work. Anthony short-cutted those headaches early in his career as an entrepreneur.
“(Bill collecting) isn’t a problem for me because I never send out bills. I collect payment as soon as a job is finished. McDonald’s expects cash for fixing you a hamburger, and that’s the way I get paid for fixing equipment.”
