Celebrating 60 Years in Business 1963-2023
55 Years NTEA Member
Lifting Businesses Worldwide
Thank you to all our network for your loyalty to our mission. We are in business to not only manufacture a product, but more importantly, to nurture livelihoods that span across generations. We plan to continue innovating for you, your children, your grandchildren and your customers' children and grandchildren.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
Tafco reveals our Aluminum SCOTT DOVETAIL at NTEA and introduces additional pump/reservoir packages
Scott Hauler gains momentum nationwide
Customized platforms at the factory to accept truck mounted forklifts.
Innovations included modernizing the Scott Lite bulkhead designs
Tafco reveals our Aluminum SCOTT DOVETAIL - in Louisville, Kentucky at the Green Industry and Equipment Expo (GIE + EXPO)
New Products added to the line:
SMOOTH EXTERIOR STEEL LANDSCAPE BODY
Modernized past products:
SMOOTH EXTERIOR ALUMINUM LANDSCAPE BODY
Enhanced our hoist power and PTO packages
Tafco reveals new products at the NTEA
ALUMINUM SCOTT-LITE 'RANGER' PLATFROM
SCOTT LEVEL-LIFT INTEGRAL SAFTY PROP For models LL400 - LL800
SCOTT 10’ FIVE YARD DUMP BODY
SCOTT HAULER
BFXFIRE BRUSH GUARD
New products added to the line:
SCOTT Hauler Platform
Steel and Stainless Dump Models 23, 45, 57, and 68
Tafco sells the ventilation fan line to J&D Mfg. Eau Claire WI.
Tafco becomes an official Ford Motor Company Vendor. Tire carriers were developed as part of the aftermarket accessories. The fold-down S-10 Blazer Carrier and the swing-away carrier for the Fort Aerostar mini-van, along with a series of hitches were developed to enlarge Tafco’s accessory line.
VENTILATION FANS
Ankeny purchases Sandborn Manufacturing’s (of Springield MN) ventilating fan line. Tafco produced four models (12”, 16”, 20”, and 24”) of the single speed wall mount exhaust/ventilation fans. First year sales reached $400,000, and year two Tafco added variable speed motors and portable 24” fans nearly doubling sales to $750,000.
Added to the product line and opened to the metropolitan market. Also pioneering aluminum truck beds.
STEEL BULK MATERIAL DUMP BODY
STEEL CONTRACTOR B0DY -
ALUMINUM SCOTT-LITE PLATFORM -
STEEL HEAVY DUTY STRUCTURAL PLATFORM -
STEEL STANDARD DUTY PLATFORM -
STEEL ECONO / FLEET DUTY PLATFORM -
CITY STAKE / STAKE SIDES KITS
V. Scott Ankeny nominated and chosen Small Business Person of the Year (MN State) and second place in the national competition.
Tafco expands building another 27,500 sq. foot plant (Plant 5) for hoist and platform manufacturing. Total manufacturing footprint equaling just under 90,000 sq. feet.
SCOTT LEVEL LIFT HYDRAULIC HOIST
First produced in Colorado due to lack of facility space, but later moved to Blue Earth and continues in Blue Earth MN. The Scott Level Lift is a unique combination of a telescopic and scissors hoist designed to incorporate the advantages of both into an all-purpose hoist and bolstering maximum torsional strength to handle uneven loads.
THE NIGHT RIDER
Tafco sells out the Hurricutter endeavor and begins assembling off-road farm and industrial light bars dubbed The Night Rider.
Tafco made many different models of running boards for the 2-door and 4-door pick-ups, vans, suburbans, wreckers, ambulances and mini-motorhomes with distribution all over the Unites States and Canada.
A customer requests for Tafco to fabricate a set of running boards for a pickup truck. From steel plate, painted white and attached to the vehicle, this set served as a model; and more running board requests began to materialize.
Tafco sponsors a tall corn contest in the summer of 1977 to publicize the running boards. Entries flooded in from two states. Media coverage was extensive. While most press concentrated on the tall corn, a St. Paul reporter expressed more interest in the running boards, which had not been seen on vehicles for many years. He termed it, “An old idea for modern truckin” and his article hit the news wire services. Running boards became an overnight hit. The fabrication division switched from mobile home frames to light truck running boards, know as “Silver Stirrups”, and other small truck accessories.
Silver Stirrups became synonymous with running boards when the company upgraded the painted boards to chrome plated. But chrome suffers with rust and corrosion if chipped or cracked. Their weight was a deterrent to convenient shipping and adding undue weight to the vehicle.
The Silver Stirrups brand continued as the company adapted bright-dipped diamond plate aluminum to its product. As running board production hit its peak, the aluminum industry was halted from tread brite manufacturing because of an air polluting element in its process.
Unfilled orders began piling high in the Tafco sales office, company officials searched for a substitute. The answer came in the form of Silver Stirrups II, an aluminum extrusion, bright-dipped and anodized, considered by the industry to be the ultimate answer to running board demand.
A quirk of fate and a public relations coup brought drastic change in operations at Plant 2. With a decline of Gerring Industries, mobile home frames were no longer in demand.
First dealership appointments – Entered into a patent and trademark licensing agreement to manufacture and sell a commercial vegetable cutter called the “Hurricutter”. The cutter was sold to mainly restaurants. Tafco built Plant 4
Mississippi river floods Knapheide manufacturing causing a shortage of grain bodies which created a huge demand for Tafco grain bodies. Omaha Standard could not keep up with Tafco’s orders for the truck platforms so Tafco decided to manufacture their own complete truck body. Because of this decision, the company had outgrown its operations and acquired a third plant located in the Blue Earth Industrial Park near its fabrication division. Plant 3 began to make platforms.
Industrial Service Company builds a new manufacturing building for Tafco on Hwy 16 – Blue Earth MN – Plant 2 – The Fabrication Division (½ mile from Gerring Industries)
Tafco Equipment Company Incorporated in June
Tafco manufactures mobile home frames for Gerring Industries in Plant 1
SCOTT STEEL GRAIN BODY
Tafco manufactures its own Scott Steel Grain Body (named for Scott Ankeny (resident and product designer) – The Scott Steel Grain Body became very popular with the farms, and Tafco’s novelty product. This was the first stake-less farm body built in the United States. Tafco was also the first company to paint their stake-less body in various colors to match the chassis.
The sides on this body are made of one continuous piece of metal using the corrugation process which bends the metal in such a way it gives the body an appearance of having stakes. This allowed for maximum strength at minimum weight.
Manufactured by:
Tafco Equipment Co.
1304 W. 1st Street
Blue Earth, MN 56013
(507) 526-3247 or 800-328-3189
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