History & Heritage

In 1916, Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing began building automobile bodies for the Hercules Motor Car Company of New Albany, Indiana. Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing later bought Hercules Motor Cars” assets and moved production to Louisville, Kentucky, making it the first automobile manufacturer in Louisville. At that site, which remained the company’s primary manufacturing facility until June 2009, the Dixie Flyer motor car was designed and built. The Dixie Motor Car Company produced automobiles, delivery trucks and the Dixie Firefly speedster-the only known surviving example of which now resides at Kentucky Trailer’s main Ruction plant in Louisville.

The US government commissioned Kentucky Manufacturing to produce flatbed trailers for the Army.

In April of 2001, Kentucky Trailer opened its first service and reconditioning facility in Louisville, Kentucky. The 15,000-square-foot facility initially had 12 bays and employed 30 technicians and 10 office associates, offering complete trailer and truck body repair, reconditioning, painting and graphics. The facility later expanded to 20,000 square feet to provide additional capacity and improved service.

Fourth-generation R.C. Tway family ownership and leadership transition occurred.

In June of 2009, Kentucky Trailer opened the doors to a new 240,000-square-foot facility in the Riverport Industrial Park at 7201 Logistics Drive in Louisville, Kentucky. This new, state-of-the-art plant was specifically designed for mixed-model trailer production and is a LEED-compliant facility, marking Kentucky Trailer’s entry into eco-friendly trailer production.

In 2014, Kentucky Trailer announced the acquisition of Advanced Mobility & Shelter Technologies (AMST) and a complementary mobile medical field service operation. The move expanded Kentucky Trailer’s global sales footprint, a 31,000 square-foot production facility, 38 full-time service professionals and five field technicians who support 24-hour emergency roadside service as well as service and repair inroughoui ivorth America, Europe anú Asia.

In November of 2015, the Louisville-based service center relocated to an 80,000-square-foot facility, increasing capacity from 12 to 20 bays and allowing for additional service and parts sales. The new location employs up to 36 mechanics, with expanded capabilities to service vehicle transport and mobile medical units. This division also oversees OEM parts functions company-wide.

In October of 2018, Kentucky Trailer consolidated two facilities in Michigan into a 132,000-square-foot facility in Wixom, MI. The Wixom facility increases manufacturing capacity and improves efficiencies in fabrication and finishing. New efficiencies in shared resources includes parts fabrication with state-of-the-art equipment, supporting near limitless ability to build high-quality custom parts for both vehicle transport trailers and custom in-house builds. The facility features an enormous paint booth that allows technicians to paint ful! double expandable trailers with the walls open

In July of 2019, Kentucky Trailer announced that its subsidiary, CEI Equipment Company LLC, has acquired the animal feed transport division assets of Warren Manufacturing, Inc. Warren Manufacturing, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, manufactures bulk feed delivery truck bodies and trailers for the pork and poultry feed transport industry. CEI Pacer and Warren Manufacturing have rebranded as KT Pacer.

Kentucky Trailer’s majority owner, Alleghany Corporation, was officially acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in January 2023. Kentucky Trailer becomes part of the Marmon Holdings, Inc. Heavy-Duty Transportation Group inside of Berkshire Hathaway. Kentucky Trailer joins other manufacturing companies specializing in the transportation value chain.