Click on The Map To Make It Bigger Map of Lake Crystal location Close Up Map of Lake Crystal location   Map of Fridley location Close Up Map of Fridley location  
Crysteel Truck Equipment has been proudly serving its loyal customers since 1974 with 2 Minnesota locations. We have a Minneapolis office located at 1130 73rd Avenue N.E. in Fridley, MN and a southern Minnesota office located 8 Miles Southwest of Mankato on HWY 60 East in Lake Crystal, MN. The Fridley location is complete with a 24,000 sq. ft. facility and a 1 acre fenced-in storage yard. Our Lake Crystal location has a 40,000 sq. ft. facility, an 11 acre fenced-in storage yard, an 80-foot downdraft and baking facility and a 70-foot blasting booth. Crysteel's service is complete with ASE certified truck technicians.
CRYSTEEL TRUCK EQUIPMENT HISTORYEldon and Helen Jones founded Crysteel Manufacturing in 1969 to manufacture truck hoist's that Eldon designed and patented under the Lo-Boy name. Their first manufacturing was done in Arlington, MN and soon after that, land was acquired east of Lake Crystal, MN and a new building was constructed with production starting in 1970. Crysteel Manufacturing soon found itself selling grain bodies and platforms from several manufacturers. Crysteel Distributing saw it's first day of business on November 1, 1974 and the company started in a 6,500 square foot steel building, just east of the manufacturing facility. In 1975, the product line was expanded to include several truck equipment lines such as pickup accessories, snow plows, service and dump bodies. 1976 found Crysteel Distributing expanded the facility to over double its original size with an addition of over 9,000 square feet, which included a paint booth. In 1979, the company made another 6,500 square foot addition to the building to accommodate a 40' Bee-Line frame straightening rack and a front-end alignment machine. Municipal dumps, snow and ice equipment used by cities and counties became a major source of business for the company. Over time, it became that although it had been conducting business in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, there was a need for an expanded presence. A one person office was started in Crystal, MN and this proved to be inadequate and was addressed by renting office space in Fridley, MN. The business was rapidly growing in the metro area with sales revenue rising in excess of 25% per year. A new pre-cast 12,000 square foot concrete building was erected in the summer of 1988. The corporation became the sole property of Larry Brandenburg and Glen Wiens in 1995 and the name of the company was changed to Crysteeel Truck Equipment Incorporated. The largest expansion the history of the company came in 1997 when six acres of land was purchased from adjoining land owners at the Lake Crystal site, giving it a total of 15.5 acres at this location. A 17,000 square foot pre-cast building was constructed to house the new paint and sandblast booths and the existing Bee-Line alignment equipment from the original building. The alignment rack, 40' straightening rack and 125' press were moved from the original location. A 70' long downdraft paint booth was installed which is 20' wide, 20' high. The paint-shop also sandblasted and painted over 400 military dumb bodies in 1998 as a subcontractor for Crysteel Manufacturing. A 60' long blasting booth is also in the building as a steel shot material is used as the blasting abrasive. Crysteel Truck Equipment has experienced rapid growth in the last five years. The company currently has two locations, one office at 1130 73rd Avenue N.E. off of highway 65 in Fridley and one in on Highway 60 East, just East of Lake Crystal. The sales volume of the company has nearly doubled in this short period since Crysteel was founded. Much of the growth has been due to the increased sales of snow and ice equipment. Crysteel Truck Equipment is now the number one distributor of snow and ice control equipment in Minnesota by selling and servicing quality equipment from manufactures such as Boss, Fisher, Western and Monroe. Other products include grain, stake, service and van bodies as well as lights, toolboxes, ladder racks, van shelving and much more from the industry's highest quality manufacturers. |
